A 

COURSE OF LECTURES 



ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH THE 

CORRUPTION, REVIVAL, AND FUTURE INFLUENCE 




OF 



By W. J. "FOX. 



As the few and obscure prophecies concerning- Christ's first coming were 
for setting up the Christian religion, which all nations have since 
corrupted ; so the many and clear prophecies concerning the things 
to be done at Christ's second coming, are not only for predicting-, but 
also for effecting, a recovery and re-establishment of the long-lost 
truth, and setting up a kingdom wherein dwells righteousness." 

Sir Isaac Newton. 

For me, I have determined to. lay up as the best treasure and solace of a 
good old age, if God vouchsafe it me, the honest liberty of free speech 
from my youth, where I shall think it available in so dear a concern- 
ment as the Church's good." 

John Milton. 



Honftott : 

Printed by G. Smallfield, Hackney ; 

SOLD BY R. HUNTER, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH- YARD, AND 
D. EATON, 187, HIGH HOLBORN. 

1819. 



PREFACE. 



The following Course of Lectures was deli- 
vered at the Unitarian Chapel, in Parliament 
Court, Artillery Lane, Bishopsgate Street, during 
the months of November and December, 1818, 
and is published in compliance with the desire, 
expressed in the most earnest and flattering 
manner, of the Congregation which regularly 
assembles in that place, and of many other 
persons by whom it was attended. 

But for such a requisition as scarcely left room 
for hesitation, these Lectures would certainly 
not have been given to the world. The critical 
reader who may think it worth while to prove 
that they confer no credit as a literary compo- 
sition, will make no unanticipated discovery to 
the author ; the events to which they relate are 
far too vast to be accelerated or retarded by the 
efforts of obscure individuals, even though highly 
gifted with those powers of influencing the 
opinions of others which he is conscious of 
possessing, if at all, only in a very inferior 



iv PREFACE. 

* 

degree; nor can Unitarian Dissenters supply the 
absence of nobler motives in the advocates of 
their cause by conferring rewards which enrich 
the garland of the victors in theological contests, 
and even gild over the tarnished and battered 
armour of the vanquished. The members of 
my Congregation did me the honour to think 
that the publication of the Lectures would be 
gratifying and instructive to them ; to gratify 
them affords me pleasure ; to aid their improve- 
ment, so far as I am able, is my duty; and 
therefore they are published. 

The leading design of the Course is laid open 
in the commencement of the first Lecture. It 
embraces subjects which it is neither customary 
nor proper frequently to discuss in the pulpit, 
but which are sufficiently important to justify 
their occasional introduction. The present 
state of the Christian world makes it sometimes 
a duty to buckle on the harness of controversy ; 
though it is far more pleasant, and more directly 
useful, to beat the swords and spears of 
theological warfare into the ploughshares and 
pruning- hooks of moral cultivation. 

The Lectures were composed for the pulpit, 
not for the press, and are, as to manner, so much 
more adapted for the former than for the latter, 
that ^very reader of taste will be frequently 
displeased, perhaps disgusted, unless he will, in 
imagination, become a hearer. To transmute 



PREFA.CE. 



their substance from the one form into the other, 
would have demanded more labour than the 
occasion required, or than the materials were 
worth ; and after all, might have proved a vain 
attempt to assimilate them to a different species 
of composition, for the excellence of a Sermon 
is (in the Author's opinion at least) widely 
different from that of an Essay. The former is 
to be heard, the latter to be read; the one is 
heard once, the other may be repeatedly perused ; 
the one passes rapidly, with attention sometimes 
fixed, and sometimes flagging; while the eye 
and mind may dwell at pleasure on the different 
parts of the other, and contemplate their mutual 
adaptation and dependence, and their combina- 
tion into an harmonious whole. To attempt to 
bestow on one the qualities which constitute 
excellence in the other, is like substituting the 
minute correctness and high finish of the cabinet 
painting for the daubing of the dramatic scene, 
where their existence would only be perceived 
by a diminution of the intended effect. Con- 
troversial sermons are, I apprehend, merely 
Speeches to set people thinking; and this notion 
will account for the appearance of what many 
will deem faults in the following Lectures, 
which I was not solicitous to avoid or expunge. 
This object has been kept constantly in view, 
and every thing sacrificed to it, save truth and 
charity. All minds have key-notes, to touch 



VI 



PREFACE. 



which I have thrown my hand rapidly along the 
instrument, careless about sometimes striking a 
discordant note, so that I might awake in others 
strains of intellectual melody, more rich and 
powerful than my own execution could produce, 
or my own compass reach. 

In preparing the Lectures for the press, some 
additions have been made (chiefly to Lectures 
III. and V.) of arguments or illustrations which 
were unnecessary in the delivery, as the same 
subjects had been introduced to the hearers on 
other occasions. The Appendix to Lecture VI., 
and the Notes, are added in hope that they may 
promote the general design of the whole, and 
direct the minds of the young especially, and of 
those who have but limited means of acquiring 
information, to useful works, and interesting 
subjects for reflection. To prevent misappre- 
hension or perversion, the Author has only to 
add, that for the opinions expressed or hinted, 
in either the Lectures or Notes, he alone is 
responsible. So far as they are true or useful, 
may the blessing of Almighty God give them 
success and influence. 

Hackney Road> 
February 24, 1819. 



CONTENTS- 



LECTURE I. 

OK ANTICHRIST. 
1 John iv. 3. 

Page 

TJiis is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye 
have heard that it should come • . .1 

LECTURE II. 

ON CHURCH-OF-ENGL ANDISM. 
Acts xix. 15. 
Jesus I know, and Paul I know; hut who 
are ye? . . . . .30 

LECTURE III. 

ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND NONCONFORMITY. 

John viii. 32. 
The Truth shall make you free . . 59 

LECTURE IV. 

ON TJNITARIANISM 

Zech. xiv. 9. 
In that day shall there be One Lord, and his 
name, One .... . 88 



Vlll 



CONTENTS. 



LECTURE V. 

ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, AND THE INFLUENCE 
OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS ON SOCIETY. 

Daniel xii. 4. 

Page 

Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge 
shall he increased . . . .125 



LECTUR E VI. 

ON WAR. 

Isaiah ii. 4. 

And they shall beat their swords into plough- 
shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks : 
nation shall not lift up sword against 
nation, neither shall they learn war any 
more . . . . . .164 

Appendix to Lecture VI. . . .193 

LECTURE VII. 

ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 

Rev. xi. 15. 

The kingdoms of this world are become the 
kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ ; 
and he shall reign for ever and ever . 236 

NOTES ...... 267 



LECTURES, $c. 



Hectare I. 

ON ANTICHRIST. 

1 John iv. 5. 

This is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have 
heard that it should come. 

The Creator of the world is the author of 
Christianity ; and the history of nature bears a 
striking analogy to that of revelation. When 
the earth was formed, and the heavens were 
stretched abroad, and light, life and reason were 
produced, the Father of the universe blessed his 
work, and pronounced it good. All was mag- 
nificent, lovely and harmonious ; a vast theatre 
for holy deeds and high enjoyments; where man 
was to perform his allotted part of good, and reap 
his recompense of bliss ; or be prepared for some 
still nobler abode in his heavenly Parent's man- 
sion. Soon this sunshine faded into darkness. 
Evil, both natural and moral, advanced to a 
conflict, apparently successful, with human virtue 
and happiness, and gained a triumphant and 
extensive prevalence. Yet evil is of temporary 

B 



9 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



duration, admitted into the plans of God on 
account of the good to which it is subservient, 
destined to destruction, and to be succeeded bv 
an otherwise unattainable degree of universal 
felicity. So when the new creation, the moral 
world of Christianity was formed, it exhibited a 
scene of surpassing excellence. There was the 
light of truth, the life of godliness, the joy of 
immortality. It was a system of knowledge and 
devotion, of purity, liberty and benevolence. 
But no sooner was the gospel widely diffused, 
than it began to be corrupted. A spurious philo- 
sophy transformed its doctrines into mysteries : 
false shame attempted to wipe away the reproach 
of the cross, by elevating the lowly prophet of 
Nazareth to the honours of deification ; while 
avarice and ambition superseded its godly disci- 
pline to make way for wealth, splendour, tyranny 
and persecution. Apostacy in the church, like 
evil in the universe, is permitted of God for wise 
and good purposes ; its limits are fixed ; its 
termination certain ; and its destruction prepa- 
ratory to the final prevalence of pure religion, the 
reign of Christ, in truth, peace and piety, over all 
nations. To illustrate this fact, is the design of 
the Course of Lectures which has been announced 
to you. They will exhibit error and evil, rising, 
prevailing, declining, and perishing, in Chris- 
tianity, thus leaving room for the free operations 
of its original principles in destroying evil in the 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



3 



world, and providing for the extent, facility and 
success of those operations, that the bright visions 
of goodness and glory, connected by the prophets 
with the Messiah whose coming they foretold, 
may at length be realized. Pursuing this object, 
we shall naturally pass from a general view of 
the corruptions of the gospel, which reached 
their greatest height in Popery, to a consideration 
of the dominant religion of our own country; 
from Church-of-Englandism to Nonconformity 
and Religious Liberty, which are the atmosphere 
in which inquiry breathes most freely, and where 
truth has revived ; and having attempted to 
delineate Unitarianism, the genuine doctrine 
(according to our convictions) of Christ and 
Revelation, and shewn the obstacles to its 
progress, the means by which, if at all, it must 
succeed, and the probability of their being effec- 
tual ; we shall pass on to evince the power of 
renovated Christianity to reach the universality 
for which it is adapted and designed ; to destroy 
in its triumphal career, Superstition, Slavery and 
War ; and to conduct mankind to that high state 
of improvement, which, as it is promised by 
prophecy, shall be secured by the resistless agency 
of Divine Providence. It is therefore by no means 
my intention that each Lecture should contain a 
full and distinct consideration of the subject 
announced, but only such a view of it as belongs 
to the general design of the whole Course. That 

B 2 



4 ON ANTICHRIST. 

design embraces topics of great interest, impor- 
tance and utility, which are well calculated to 
strengthen our piety towards God, expand our 
benevolence to man, and multiply our purest 
enjoyments by filling the mind with animating 
anticipations of futurity. 

. The religion which was taught by the apostles, 
consisting of a few plain facts relative to the 
character of God, the mission of Jesus, and a 
judgment to come; together with a refined code 
of morals, and a judicious employment of the 
social principle for the purposes of instruction and 
correction, was remarkable for its power : and it 
was powerful only for good. To render it mis- 
chievous a previous corruption was indispensable. 
They foresaw such a corruption, and shuddered 
at the already nascent existence, and future 
dominion and enormities of Antichrist. Our first 
inquiry is into the meaning of that term, and 
the marks and extent of the apostacy designated 
by it in the New Testament. 

The interpretation of prophecy is now attended 
with many difficulties which seem not to have 
been felt by the early Christians. This difference 
may be attributable not only to familarity with 
the language and emblematic style in which they 
were delivered, but probably also to traditionary 
expositions of high authority, and the oral com- 
mentaries of those who were themselves occa- 
sionally gifted with inspiration. Hence many 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



5 



parts of Scripture are now considered obscure, 
and generally neglected, which then were com- 
monly read, and readily understood. Some of 
the predictions of Daniel belong to this class. 
The assumption by Christ of the title of Son of 
Ma?i, from that book, would recommend it to the 
attention of the apostles and first disciples. They 
read there the promise of his spiritual sovereignty 
over the whole earth: (Dan. vii. 14:) "And 
there was given him dominion, and glory, and a 
kingdom, that all people, nations and languages 
should serve him : his dominion is an everlasting 
dominion, which shall not pass away, and his 
kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." 
And thence also they derived the idea of a hostile 
ecclesiastical power, which was the subject of 
general attention and expectation, even before it 
was more clearly predicted by Paul and John. 
This power was to rise out of the Roman empire. 
He (ver. 21, 22,) " made war with the saints, 
and prevailed against them ; until the Ancient of 
Days came, and judgment was given to the saints 
of the Most High ; and the time came that the 
saints possessed the kingdom." It is also said, 
(ver. 25, 26,) " And he shall speak great words 
against the Most High, and shall wear out the 
saints of the Most High, and think to change 
times and laws ; and they shall be given into his 
hand until a time and times and the dividing: of 
time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall 



6 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



take away his dominion, to consume and destroy 
it unto the end."( a ) Other predictions of Daniel, 
though attended with greater difficulty, belong 
to the same subject. They are the foundations 
of those contained in the New Testament ; but 
the latter are, to us at least, of a much more 
intelligible character. After the ascension of 
Jesus, at what precise time it is impossible to 
ascertain, but perhaps earlier than is generally 
supposed, he was commissioned by his Father to 
communicate to believers, through the apostle 
John, a prophetic history of his Church, in a 
series of extraordinary visions recorded in the 
Revelation. Here we have a description (chap, 
xiii.) minutely corresponding with that of Daniel, 
and afterwards (chap, xvii.) a delineation of the 
apostacy, as " a Woman sitting upon a scarlet- 
coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, hav- 
ing seven heads and ten horns, and the woman was 
arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked 
with gold, and precious stones, and pearls, having 
a golden cup in her hand full of abomination 
and filthiness of her fornication : and upon her 
forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon 
the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abomi- 
nations of the Earth." She is also described as 
" committing fornication with the kings of the 
earth ; ruling over multitudes and nations ; and 
drunk with the blood of saints and martyrs." 
These additions to the original prophecy of Daniel 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



7 



were, probably, commonly known and discussed 
among Christians, for John writes of Antichrist 
as a familiar subject, and Paul refers, in his epistle 
to the Thessalonians, to earlier communications. 
The term itself only occurs in the epistles of 
John. It may mean opposed to Christ, or instead 
of Christ. These meanings are indeed coinci- 
dent, and lead us directly to the essence of the 
apostacy. which consisted in usurping the spi- 
ritual authority of Christ. He is the only Lord 
of faith and practice ; and authority set up 
instead of his, is, in fact, in opposition. It first 
occurs in I John ii. 18, 19 : " As ye have heard 
that Antichrist shall come, even now are there 
many Antichrists; whereby we know that it is 
the last time. They went out from us, but they 
were not of us." It is also introduced in ver. 22 : 
" Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is 
the Christ? He is Antichrist that denieth the 
Father and the Son." In the text, (and in the 
second epistle,) it is applied to those who did 
" not confess Jesus Christ, come in the flesh," 
with the remark, 44 Ye have heard that it should 
come, and even now already is it in the world." 
We learn from these texts that the term does not 
designate any particular church, or man, or set of 
men, but a spirit or system which had its birth 
in the days of the apostles, and which, wherever 
it exists, corrupts the gospel in its doctrines, 
design and influence. Many theologians have 



8 ON ANTICHRIST. 

applied the term peculiarly and solely to the 
Church of Rome. This restriction is wholly 
unwarranted by, and inconsistent with, the New 
Testament delineation of the apostacy. That 
church bears its marks, but not alone. In dif- 
ferent degrees of vividness, they are visible on 
the eastern as well as western churches ; before 
the existence of what is properly called Popery, 
as well as after ; and in the national churches 
which have abandoned, as in those which have 
remained, in that communion. There are two 
predictions by Paul, which it is necessary to 
quote at length, in addition to those already 
mentioned. The first is introduced to warn the 
Thessalonians against an erroneous notion, that 
the coming of Christ was near at hand. 2 Thess. 
ii. 1 — 12: " Now we beseech you, brethren, by 
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by 
our gathering together unto him, that ye be not 
soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by 
spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as 
that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man 
deceive you by any means : for that day shall 
not come, except there come a falling away first, 
and that man of sin be revealed, the son of per- 
dition ; who opposeth and exalteth himself above 
all that is called God, or that is worshipped ; so 
that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, 
shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye 
not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



9 



these things? And now ye know what with- 
holdeth, that he might be revealed in his time. 
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work : 
only he who now letteth will let until he be 
taken out of the way. And then shall that 
Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall con- 
sume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall 
destroy with the brightness of his coming : even 
him, whose coming is after the working of Satan 
with all power and signs and lying wonders, and 
with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in 
them that perish ; because they received not the 
love of the truth, that they might be saved. 
And for this cause God shall send them strong 
delusion, that they should believe a lie: that 
they all might be damned who believed not the 
truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." The 
other is in 1 Tim. iv. 1 — 6 : " Now the Spirit 
speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some 
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing 
spirits, and doctrines of devils ; [demons;] speak- 
ing lies in hypocrisy ; having their conscience 
seared with a hot iron ; forbidding to marry, and 
commanding to abstain from meats, which God 
hath created to be received with thanksgiving 
of them which believe and know the truth. 
For every creature of God is good, and nothing 
to be refused, if it be received with thanks- 
giving : for it is sanctified by the word of God 
and prayer." 



20 



ON ANTICHRIST* 



Here is a set of distinguishing marks which, 
wherever they are found, and so far as they are 
found, indicate the presence of Antichrist. I 
do not mean that some of them may not exist 
in particular churches without others ; that there 
may not frequently be much good in their com- 
pany ; or that very many holy men may not have 
been partially under their influence. It is not 
for us to judge our brethren; but the spirit of 
creeds and systems we may judge, comparing 
them with the gospel, without any breach of 
humility or charity. Indeed, we not only may, 
but must judge them, if we would inquire out 
" the old paths, where is the good way, and 
walk therein, to find rest for our souls " and 
obey the apostolic directions to " try the spirits, 
whether they are of God and " prove all 
things," that we may " hold fast that which is 
good/' The characteristics of the apostacy are 
dominion over conscience ; alliance with the 
temporal authority ; mystery ; idolatrous wor- 
ship; blasphemy; hypocrisy, deceit and affected 
austerity; and persecution. Antichrist is, there- 
fore, such a personification of evil in the church, 
as Satan is in the world. The predicted mis- 
chiefs, just enumerated, were at their greatest 
height, and in their completest combination, in 
Popery, a short time before the Reformation ; 
but they had an embryo existence in the apos- 
tolic age ; have contaminated the whole, or nearly, 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



11 



of the professed Christian church ; wherever 
found, should be reprobated ; and apparently are 
fated, at no very distant period, to be abolished, 
preparatory to the conversion of the Jews, and 
the universal diffusion of genuine Christianity. 

The great and leading evil, which may be con- 
sidered as the source from which the rest flow, 
or the soul by which they are animated, is an 
usurped authority over faith and conscience. A 
voice from heaven proclaimed of Jesus, " This is 
my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: 
hear ye him." He is declared to be " the 
author and finisher of faith." All human au- 
thority in matters of religion, all dictation of 
what is to be believed or done by Christians, as 
such, is rebellion against his supremacy, and 
whenever admitted, has proved the fertile source 
of error, confusion and persecution. The apostles 
were aware of this tendency, and pointedly dis- 
claimed spiritual authority. " We preach, not 
ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord." " Not for 
that we have dominion over your faith, but are 
helpers of your joy," They reminded the elders 
of churches, that they were not " lords over 
God's heritage." The meek and lowly Jesus 
vindicated this supremacy as his peculiar dig- 
nity and right. " Ye call me Master and Lord : 
and ye say well ; for so I am. Be not ye called 
rabbi : for one is your Master, even Christ ; and 
all ye are brethren. And call no man your 



12 



ON ANTICHRIST, 



Father upon the earth : for one is your Father, 
which is in heaven. 0 Such precepts as these, 
which, far from being so unimportant as they 
are sometimes considered, have a vital connexion 
with the authority of revealed religion, and its in- 
tellectual and moral influence, have been grosslv 
and generally violated, — by the powers which 
Councils, beginning with that of Nice, in the 
fourth century, have arrogated to themselves 
over the church ; by the pretensions of Patri- 
archs of the East, and the Bishops of Rome in 
the West, who assumed the title of Pope, or 
Father; by the English Episcopacy, in forgetting 
that Christ was the sole head of the church, 
and bestowing that appellation, with correspon- 
dent powers, on the profligate, licentious and 
tyrannical Henry VIII. ; by the Presbyterian 
divines, in imposing their Confession and Cate- 
chism ; and by the Diotrephes of the Meeting- 
house, who, by making his own faith the standard 
of Christianity, and its profession the term of 
communion, emulates, according to his station 
^nd ability, the possessor of the triple crown. 

The primitive church was composed of persons 
united merely by the acknowledgment that Jesus 
of Nazareth was the Messiah, a divinely-com- 
missioned Teacher, whose instructions each was 
to interpret for himself. This allowed great 
room for diversity of opinion, and such diversity 
actually existed; but while they exercised mu- 



OX ANTICHRIST. 



13 



tual charity, and none attempted to set up their 
own faith as a standard, things went on very well. 
Their bishops and elders were designed, not 
more for the purposes of instruction, than for 
those of worship and discipline. The first evil 
was the elevation of these officers into a separate, 
dignified and endowed class. The wealth of the 
world, and the speculations of the philosophers, 
flowed into the church, destroying alike sim- 
plicity of manners, faith and worship. Then 
came new doctrines, and new methods of stating 
and enforcing doctrine, by creeds, anathemas, 
and decisions of councils : ecclesiastical power 
reared its head : heretics (all who believed dif- 
ferently from the strongest party) were driven 
from communion, consigned to future and endless 
punishment, and the strong arm of imperial au- 
thority was invoked to crush them : the Bible 
became a prohibited book : proud man sat in 
the temple of God, as God, and dispensed the 
pardon of sins, and fixed the terms of everlasting 
life. The Reformation left the principle of 
these enormities, though its extravagancies were 
pruned. Churches still tell you what you must 
find in the Bible, though vou are allowed to read 
it. Even Dissenters play their little game of 
tyranny, and make Christians pass to the Lord's 
table through the pool of baptism, or under the 
forks of the Assembly's Catechism. ( b ) All this 
is not more unchristian than pernicious. Mental 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



liberty is essential to mental strength. That a 
man does not think for himself in religion, not 
only keeps him ignorant, but it makes him 
slavish, bigotted, and subservient to the bad 
designs of others ; it enlists him under the ban- 
ners of the principle of evil ; makes him a 
soldier in the armies of corruption, and an 
enemy of the human race, whose improvement 
he retards, and whose debasement he would per- 
petuate. 

The next mark of an antichristian church is, 
alliance with temporal authority r , which is not 
only suggested by the expression, " with whom 
the kings of the earth have committed forni- 
cation," (Rev. xvii. 2,) but appears from the 
whole description, in which the beast represents 
the civil powers, and the woman is an emblem 
of the corrupt church supported by their inter- 
position. The Romish Church had the extra- 
ordinary address, or fortune, to gain for itself a 
political existence, and become a state. This 
anomaly is supposed to be the subject of distinct 
prophecy, and to be shadowed out in the little 
horn of DanieFs fourth beast. Other churches 
have stopped short of such a consummation ; 
but the subservient connexion in which they 
have rested can scarcely be deemed less perni- 
cious. They are kingdoms of this world, esta- 
blished by its authority, subservient to its 
designs, paid from its treasures, and armed with 



OX ANTICHRIST. 15 

its vengeance ; consequently far indeed from 
being" the kingdom of Christ, By such alliances 
Christians have lost the freedom of their minds, 
the simplicity of their faith, the purity of their 
worship, the independence of their characters; 
and they have gained the exclusive possession of 
wealth and honour, a patent to dogmatize, and a 
power to persecute. 

The gospel was distinguished by simplicity ; 
it was preached to the poor, and adapted to their 
capacities; it revealed many mysteries, or secrets, 
by which they ceased to be so, but it taught 
none; on the contrary, mystery is inscribed on 
the forehead of apostacy, and is presented as a 
test that, however intermixed with the doctrines 
of Christ, we may detect and discard the corrupt 
additions of after ages. Secrecy was resorted to 
by the early Christians, under persecution, in 
the celebration of their worship, from necessity 
or prudence; it was retained from policy, for 
the purpose of exciting reverence for particular 
ceremonies, and being thus introduced, it gra- 
dually pervaded the whole system, until every 
thing was mysterious, from the most important 
proposition in a creed, to the most trifling article 
of dress of the priest by whom it was repeated. 
The senses and the understanding were alike 
bewildered. Against the Eastern Church, with 
which, indeed, the notion of Transubstantiation 
originated, at the second Council of Nice, this 



16 



on 



ANTICHRIST. 



charge may be as completely made out, as 
against the Church of Rome. And was mys- 
tery got rid of at the Reformation ? Look at 
the Athanasian Creed; read the Institutes of 
Calvin, and the Confession of the Westminster 
Assembly; take any statement of Trinitarianism, 
Papal or Protestant, Lutheran or Calvinistic, 
Episcopalian, Presbyterian, or Independent ; 
mystery glares on its front, and enters into its 
very essence. 

The doctrines concerning demons, of which 
Paul speaks, very accurately describe that pre- 
valent invocation of saints, which was evidently 

j tf 

borrowed from those notions of the souls of 
dead men, and acts of homage to them, which are 
so prominent in the mythology and superstitions 
of antiquity. On this ground, Protestants have 
often advanced the charge of idolatry against 
Papists. This offence is certainly elsewhere 
connected with Antichrist ; and Bishop Newton 
very justly observes, that it is hinted at in the 
term Apostacy, (falling away, our translators 
have rendered it.) which " was idolatry in the 
Jewish Church, and therefore is the same in the 
Christian." Yet it should be remembered that 
the saints were honoured, not as gods, instead 
of the Father, but as mediators, instead of the 
Son. There could be nothing analogous to this 
error during the Jewish dispensation, nor any pro- 
priety in defining it by terms previously employed 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



17 



to describe a different offence. It is, doubtless, 
the demonology of New Testament prophecy ; 
but where shall we find the apostacy and ido- 
latry ? There are two kinds of idolatry ; 1st, The 
adoration of any other being or person than the 
One God, the Jehovah of the patriarchs, and the 
Father of Christ; and, 2ndly, that of a visible 
or imagined form, even if it be nominally iden" 
tified with the true God. He is the Infinite 
Spirit, and any material representation of him is 
strictly forbidden. Yet some have worshipped 
his bodily picture or statue ; while others adore 
him as incarnate, existing in a man, whose form 
may be painted or fancied, and who is besought 
to hear prayer by his birth, circumcision, agony, 
death, burial and resurrection. In addition to 
God the Father, the uniform and sole object 
of scriptural worship, we hear supplications ad- 
dressed to God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, 
and to that mysterious and complex idea, formed 
by their union, called God the Trinity. For 
the worship of the Holy Ghost and the Trinity, 
not even the shadow of Scripture precept or 
example can possibly be alleged ; while that of 
Christ is in opposition to his express prohibition, 
" In that day ye shall ask me nothing ; verily, 
verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask 
the Father in my name, he will give it you." 
(John xvi. 23.) 

It is said of the power described in Dan. vii. 8, 

c 



18 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



and again Rev. xiii., that he should 44 speak 
great words against the Most High ; and open 
his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blas- 
pheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them 
that dwell in heaven." Does this refer to the 
assumption, by ecclesiastical dignitaries, of titles 
which ought to have been held sacred to the 
Deity ? Does it describe that active malignity 
which has ever delighted to blacken the cha- 
racters of reputed heretics, and cast out, not 
only from the church, but from an honourable 
abode in the memories of men, those who pre- 
served the tabernacle of God in this wilderness 
of corruption, and who shall dwell in heaven? 
The charge is advanced against the Ecclesiastical 
State, and the Civil Powers in alliance with the 
church. It may be a condemnation of their as* 
piring to spiritual legislation, and of the manner 
in which that authority has been exercised. 
Blasphemy is evil-speaking. Intentional defa- 
mation of the Deity is scarcely to be imagined. 
But we must lament that such creeds have ge- 
nerally been established, as tend to throw a dark 
shade over the Divine perfections. They impair 
our perception of his excellence, by notions 
which compress infinity into human shape, and 
connect spirituality with corporeal organs and 
sufferings : they sully his moral character, and 
dim its loveliness, by attributing to him actions 
that would disgrace even imperfect man, and 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



19 



sink him from the Father into the tyrant of the 
human race. 

Pious frauds, feigned miracles, forbidding to 
marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, 
are now matters of history, like the other pre- 
dictions, and but too easily and frequently to 
be met with. ( c ) We find them abundantly in 
the fourth century, when the maxim was almost 
universally adopted, " that it was an act of 
virtue to deceive and lie, when by that means 
the interests of the church might be promoted. " 
Of this period, Mosheim remarks, " a whole 
volume would be requisite to contain an enu- 
meration of the various frauds practised, with 
success, to delude the ignorant, when true reli- 
gion was almost entirely superseded by horrid 
superstition." Athanasians and Arians, as oppor- 
tunity allowed, fought with the same weapons, 
and opposed fraud to fraud, miracle to miracle, 
and persecution to persecution. While we gladly 
forget the gross trickeries by which, in dark ages, 
ignorance was gulled that it might be enslaved 
and plundered, we must be allowed to express 
regret that Protestants and Dissenters should 
yet retain some traces of this evil. How often, 
in the recollection of every one, has reputed 
heresy been assailed with calumnious and forged 
tales of blasphemies and sudden judgments, got 
up for the purpose of terrifying men from the 
use of their common sense on religious subjects \ 

c 2 



20 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



Truth disdains such arms : they are the weapons 
of Antichrist, and worthy only of the policy 
of the Inquisition, which, when its victims are 
led to the stake, clothes them with robes co- 
vered with painted devils. Happily, their use 
is almost abandoned by the more respectable of 
every party. 

Persecution is also sufficiently visible in the 
pages of Ecclesiastical History, and alike inca- 
pable of an exclusive application to the Church 
of Rome; for though she may have been " drunk 
with the blood of saints and martyrs/' her daugh- 
ters have sipped, and many of them not sparingly, 
the same horrid beverage. The history of state 
religions, which is also the history of what is 
called orthodoxy, is written, for ages, with 
blood. The stain attaches also to the different 
sects which have only had temporary power. 
Socinus was a party to the unjust imprisonment 
of the aged and venerable Davides, for refusing 
to worship Christ: Calvinism has its infancy 
and origin blackened by the murder of Servetus : 
the Presbyterians in this country would have 
taken the life of Biddle, but for Cromwell : and 
the Puritans who fled to America for liberty of 
conscience, denied that, and even life, to some 
of the sectaries who followed them. 

The following passage, on the propriety of 
making Babylon the symbol of Anti-christianity, 
and the impossibility of restricting that apostacy 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



21 



to Rome, while it evidently applies to the opi- 
nions, history and practices, of the whole of what 
has been called the Orthodox Church, is by Evan- 
son, a clergyman who relinquished his emolu- 
ments for conscience' sake: "The figurative terms^ 
Babylon the Great, that great city, &c. are mani- 
festly opposed to those of Jerusalem, the holy 
city, the new Jerusalem, &c. ; and therefore, since 
the latter type cannot denote any one particular 
city, but must necessarily include in its signifi- 
cation every society of true Christians^ who 
embrace and practise the pure religion, of the 
gospel, and acknowledge no Lord nor Lawgiver 
in religious concerns but Jesus Christ; so the 
former cannot be confined to any one church or 
city, but must needs extend to every society, in 
every nation, by whatsoever denomination they 
may call themselves, who adopt the an ti-? christian 
superstition, which temporal power alone hath 
established, and alone continues to uphold. In 
this sense there is, indeed, a very just and 
striking correspondence between the thing sig- 
nified and the sign: for as Babylon was the 
source of ancient, so hath the Orthodox- Church 
been of modern, idolatry: as Babylon first aimed 
at universal empire, and enslaved the nations 
around it; so the Orthodox Church first at- 
tempted to establish an universal empire over 
conscience, and enslaved the minds of men : as 
the despot of Babylon decreed that all who 



22 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



would not worship the image he had thought fit 
to erect, should be destroyed in the burning 
fiery furnace ; so the princes of the Orthodox 
Church condemned those who refused to con- 
form to the idolatry they had established, to 
perish at the fiery stake ; while the church 
herself, not satiated with such diabolical ven- 
geance, hath impiously presumed to anticipate 
the final judgment of heaven, and doomed them 
in the next world to suffer everlasting burnings : 
as Babylon desolated and laid waste Jerusalem, 
led captive the people of Israel, and compelled 
them to violate the principles of the law of 
Moses, and publicly to offer sacrifice to Pagan 
idols ; so the Orthodox Church hath ruined and 
enthralled the Church of Christ, and compelled 
the professors of Christianity to contradict the 
very spirit and first principles of the gospel, and 
openly to embrace her catholic faith and ido- 
latrous mode of worship. Lastly, as the As- 
syrian metropolis projected the impracticable 
scheme of an universal union of mankind, and 
erected a common centre of unity for that pur- 
pose, which ended in the disunion and entire 
separation of the people from each other, by the 
confusion of tongues ; so the Orthodox Church, 
wheresoever it hath been established, hath erected 
a common standard of religious belief, and wildly 
and vainly endeavoured to accomplish an uni- 
versal agreement of opinion and uniformity of 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



23 



doctrine, and the attempt hath ended in the 
division and subdivision of Christendom into a 
very Babel of contending heresies and differing 
modes of fanaticism and superstition." — Letter 
to Hurd, p. 109, 2nd Ed. 

This view of our subject, though at first it 
may seem harsh, is really conducive to charity. 
It teaches that no one body of professing Chris- 
tians is to be singled out, and held up for odium, 
as peculiarly stained with the characteristics of 
the predicted apostacy ; but that they are scat- 
tered, though in different proportions, over the 
whole of nominal Christendom. We turn from 
mutual accusation to inquiry after the portion of 
the evil which we mav have shared, and endea- 
vour to correct it. What Presbyterian does not 
blush at the stern hatred of his forefathers to 
Rome, as the only Antichrist ? What Church- 
man should not be ashamed of such a paltry 
excuse for depriving his Catholic fellow- subject 
of civil rights? Our attention is drawn from 
men to systems ; to religious tyranny, mystery, 
idolatry, fraud, persecution ; they alone are held 
up to hatred, opposition, condemnation, and de- 
struction. — May they perish, and for ever ! 

Yet it must be noticed, as forming a strong 
presumption against the Trinitarian Creed, that 
while in itself it seems to correspond with part 
of the account given in Scripture of the great 
apostacy, it has undeniably been closely entan- 



24 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



gled, and deeply involved, in the progress of 
that apostacy. That it is mysterious its ad- 
vocates readily admit, and frequently they avow 
and dwell upon the fact, for the purpose of 
commanding reverence, avoiding explanation, or 
stopping inquiry. That it is idolatrous they also 
grant, unless its truth be established. The men 
whom Paul describes as corrupters of the faith, 
and believers of a lie, were its authors and pro- 
pagators. The Councils which destroyed Chris- 
tian liberty were held for its defence. The 
succession of false miracles, which marked the 
apostacy, was wrought in its proof. The civil 
establishments, which degraded Christianity, 
propped up Trinitarianism. It was the faith 
given instead of the Bible, or subscribed with 
the Bible. Persecution has been its handmaid. 
Till very lately, even in this country, to deny it 
was an offence subject to heavy penalties. All 
this is ground for strong suspicion, anterior to 
any detailed examination of Scripture upon the 
subject. 

How manifold are the evils which Antichrist, 
i. e. the assumptions and practices which have 
been enumerated, in whatever party they be 
found, have produced to the world ! The pure 
gospel was a rich source of blessedness. Every 
kind affection sprung up at its approach, like 
the flowers at the return of spring. Men learned 
to love their God, and one another. Dismally 



OX ANTICHRIST. 



25 



was the scene reversed, when a counterfeit gospel 
was palmed upon the world. The authors of 
that change are accountable for a mass of guilt 
and misery. 

In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, it seemed 
as if all Europe were propelled on Asia. Chris- 
tendom was roused to a holy war. The cross 
decked the ensign and the weapon of slaughter. 
The minds of millions were maddened with su- 
perstitious fury, and a road was cut to the holy 
sepulchre by battle, siege, murder and massacre 
— aye, indiscriminate massacre of sex and age, 
preparatory to religious procession to the tomb 
of Jesus! What is to be charged with these 
infernal deeds and passions, but the corruptions 
of Christianity ? 

"What a miserable object is the ignorant and 
misguided slave of superstition ! For him, the 
avenues of science are closed ; the affections of 
benevolence are chilled ; he worships an un- 
known God ; he looks for salvation to his saint, 
and for pardon to his priest ; instead of being 
" a little below the angels/' he is scarcely above 
the brutes ; reason is absorbed in passion and 
instinct ; he is played upon, and trodden upon, 
at his master's pleasure : and what has made 
him — made nations such things as these r The 
corruptions of Christianity. 

They have also occasioned much infidelity. 
Man is not always to be condemned for not dis- 



26 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



tmguishing between Christianity, in itself, and 
in the declarations and faith of all around him. 
We may sometimes see a man, of mighty mind 
and noble heart, entering the lists against the 
gospel, denouncing its author for an enthusiast, 
his apostles as deceivers, its records as forgeries, 
and its tendency as detestable. The corruptions 
of Christianity have dimmed his intellectual 
sight, and drenched his soul with moral poison. 

We see Christians hating, instead of loving 
each other ; separating, when they should unite ; 
conflicting, when they should co-operate ; causing 
the limitation of the gospel, when they might 
ensure its extension ; they have burned with 
the fires of persecution, wheu they should have 
warmed with the glow of charity ; they have 
been tyrants by penal laws, when they should 
have been brethren by the law of love ; they 
have anathematized, when they should have 
blessed ; — and what breeds all this confusion, 
but the corruptions of Christianity ! 

Yes ; they have crushed the mind of man, 
and waged exterminating w T ar with truth and 
charity : they have dethroned the Saviour, and 
given the sovereignty of the church, delegated 
by God to him alone, to tyrants, priests and 
partizans : they have polluted the temple with 
unhallowed worship, and bartered the word of 
God for wealth, or made it a stepping-stone to 
seats of power. Ought not this evil spirit to be 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



27 



laid — to be bound in chains for ever ? This 
consummation is promised. The Babylon of 
the Apocalypse was utterly destroyed. The 
entranced apostle heard the shout of righteous 
exultation, " as it were the voice of a great 
multitude, and as the voice of many waters, 
and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, 
Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." 

Paul gives a like cheering prospect in his 
prophecy of the " man of sin, that wicked, 
whom the Lord shall consume with the breath 
of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness 
of his coming." And here is, probably, an 
allusion to the word of God, as the means by 
which that event shall be accomplished. The 
study, examination and diffusion of the Scrip- 
tures, must be fatal ultimately to all unfounded 
pretensions, all errors in doctrine and worship, 
all unchristian practices. It is by the devout 
study of the word of God that both the indi- 
vidual and the world must be enlightened, re- 
formed, improved, and led on towards perfection. 
Let me exhort every one seriously to inquire of 
those oracles, that if there be any thing anti- 
christian in his opinions, feelings, or conduct, 
it may be destroyed. 

Read the Bible, and you will own no Master 
but Christ. You will see that he alone was 
commissioned of God to speak the words of 
eternal life, and that by yourself they must be 



28 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



interpreted for yourself. You will repel the 
dictation of man, in however elevated a station, 
as an insulting interference between the Teacher 
and the disciple. You will prefer the simplicity 
of apostolic teaching, to the mysteries of modern 
orthodoxy; the genuine creed of Paul, 4 6 There 
is one God, and one Mediator between God and 
men, the man Christ Jesus," to the forged creed 
of Athanasius. Instead of repeating, in the 
spirit of bigotry, " Whosoever will be saved, 
before all things it is necessary that he hold the 
Catholic faith ; which faith, except every one 
do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he 
shall perish everlastingly :" you will affirm, in 
the spirit of charity, " God is no respecter of 
persons, but in every nation, he that feareth 
him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted 
with him." Instead of addressing prayers to 
the Son, the Holy Ghost, the Trinity, you will 
" bow your knees unto the Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ:" instead of a gloomy and capri- 
cious Deity, you will have a God who is love : 
and for a system which derives support from 
penal statutes, or political patronage, or which 
exists by exciting childish terrors, and shunning 
or stifling examination, you will have principles 
which are advancing in defiance of all these, 
holding on a triumphant course, and shining 
brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. 

The flame of free inquiry is kindled ; and 



ON ANTICHRIST. 



29 



while the precious things of truth, liberty and 
righteousness, will abide its purifying operation, 
all else is doomed to perish in the conflagration. 
But this bright prospect belongs to a subsequent 
part of our Course. To delineate the evil, is 
our first and painful task ; nor is it useless. 
Disgust with error may invigorate our love of 
truth. The enormities of bigotry are a foil to 
the beauty -of benevolence ; while the degra- 
dation of religions slavery teaches impressively 
that we should " stand fast in the liberty where- 
with Christ has made us free, and not be entan- 
gled again with the yoke of bondage." Direful 
as their influence has been, the corruptions of 
Christianity have less of evil than the genuine 
gospel has of good ; they should endear it to 
our hearts, as the best gift of God ; the pledge 
of human improvement, peace and happiness 
here, and of immortality and blessedness here- 
after. 



( 30 ) 



LECTURE II. 

ON CHURCH-OF-ENGLANDISM . 



Acts xix. 15. 
Jesus I know > and Paul I know; but who are ye? 

These words are as applicable to systems as to 
persons. They consist of an assertion, and a 
question ; and though attributed to an evil 
spirit, the assertion was true, and the question 
pertinent. And that spirit, though submissive 
to Christ, or his apostle, was too strong for the 
priestty impostors who assumed their name 
without authority. I take the verse as a motto, 
and without further application, proceed to the 
subject of this evening's Lecture. 

Comparing the language of Daniel with that 
of the Apostles John and Paul, in several dis- 
tinct predictions, the characteristics of the apos- 
tacy which was to take place in the Christian 
Church, have appeared to be spiritual tyranny; 
alliance with temporal authority; mystery; ido- 
latrous worship; blasphemy; hypocrisy, deceit 
and affected austerity ; and persecution. To 



ON CHURCH-OF-ENGLANDISM. 



31 



these might have been added immorality ; but 
that it is more correctly viewed as a general 
result of the whole, than as a distinct and addi- 
tional trait. Certain it is, that the great body 
of professing Christians have long ceased to 
resemble the first believers, in purity and ele- 
vation of character; nor can the difference be 
well accounted for, but by supposing, either 
that a religion from heaven may become en- 
feebled by age, and cease to be followed by the 
effects which it was designed to, and originally 
actually did, produce ; or, that the corruptions 
of the gospel have materially interfered with its 
regenerating and sanctifying efficacy. There 
can be no hesitation in adopting the latter sup- 
position. Even amid the glories of primitive 
Christianity, the seed of these evils was traced 
lurking in the churches. It soon sprung up, 
and when the apostles were removed, had a 
rapid growth. After the political conversion of 
the Roman emperors, it attained a baneful ma- 
turity, and spread its branches over the earth, 
while every fairer flower withered in its shade. 
It is not yet " hewn down and cast into the 
fire." We have found its fruits in different sects; 
and in some behold goodly slips, which, though 
severed from the trunk, retain many of the 
noxious qualities of the parent Upas. To re- 
cover from that great apostacy must needs be a 
work of time. Those reformed churches which 



ON CHURCH-OF-ENGLA N D ISM. 



left the path of free inquiry open, did most 
towards it : but those which made certain 
changes, and then stopped, did little or nothing. 
The essence of the evil remained ; and its abolition 
has been found as difficult as ever. To which 
of these classes we must assign the sect which 
took possession of much of the authority, pro- 
perty and privileges of Popery in this kingdom, 
will appear from a brief review of its constitution, 
faith, worship and influence. 

Following the same train of thought as in the 
first Lecture, in which dominion over conscience 
appeared to be a criterion between genuine and 
spurious Christianity, we inquire, Does the 
Church of England claim, or renounce, this for- 
bidden lordship ? Are its members at liberty to be- 
lieve and profess whatever appears to them to be 
taught in the New Testament ? No such thing. 
Their faith is marked out for them ; and on almost 
every subject of interest, and on many of very 
inferior moment, they are minutely instructed 
what they must believe. Nay, it is broadly as- 
serted, (Art. 20,) that " the Church hath power 
to decree rites or ceremonies, and authority in 
controversies of faith This assumption may 
be apparently limited by the declaration which 
follows, that it must not be contrary to God's 
word, nor make Scripture contradict itself : but 
the limitation is only in appearance ; for who 
judges of this contrariety? Why this same 



ox 



CHURCH-OF-ENGLANDISM. 



33 



Church : and of course the contrariety can never 
happen. ( d ) 

If there be one tiling clearer than another in 
the New Testament, it is, that Christianity is a 
personal religion. Every one is bound for himself 
to ascertain what its truths are, as of himself he 
must realize its virtues if he would enjoy its 
blessings. No man, or set of men, are or ever 
have been vested with the character of authorized 
interpreters, and its assumption is intolerable. 
Jesus, and he alone, is the religious Teacher of 
the world. Yet has the Church of England put 
forth an enormous collection of propositions, and 
declared that this is Christianity, and shall be 
believed. 

And what is meant by the Church in this 
connexion ? The 19th Article well defines a 
church to be " a congregation of faithful men, 
in the which the pure word of God is preached, 
and the sacraments duly ministered, according to 
Christ's ordinance in all those things that of 
necessity are requisite to the same." This is 
good and liberal, though not very consistent. It 
is not Episcopacy, but Independency. But has 
such a congregation a power hi matters of faith ? 
Have thev a risrht to sav to their individual 
members, or to any desirous of joining them, or 
to their offspring, You must believe these articles 
to be a Christian, to have fellowship with us, to 
be admitted to Christian privileges, and to reach 

D 



34 



ON CHURCH-OF-ENGLAN DISM. 



heaven hereafter ? Certainly not. The very 
assumption destroys their claim to be a church, 
and makes them Unchristian, and Antichristian 
usurpers. They have no right for themselves 
any more than for others. They are disciples, and 
should leave open the doors of inquiry for their 
own minds, and not at once decree the cessation 
of intellectual and religious improvement. 

But the sense of the members of the Church 
of England never tvas taken on this mass of creeds 
and articles. They have never been consulted : 
for, by a dexterous juggle, whenever any thing of 
this description is the subject, the Church means 
either the Clergy, or the Bishops, or the Parlia- 
ment, or the Sovereign, or one, or all of these 
powers, but never the community. In this case, 
faith was fixed by the Convocation, passed the 
Legislature, and was ratified by Queen Elizabeth : 
they were the Church ; and could have given 
another gospel to the good people of England for 
all generations. 

This is another extraordinary circumstance in 
this spiritual usurpation, that it was to extend 
not only to contemporary subject millions, but 
to all futurity. The one hundred and seventeen 
Priests of the Convocation in 1562, are to be, 
instead of Christ, for ever the spiritual lawgivers 
of this realm. Though many could not write 
their own names, and others voted by proxy, yet 
their opinions are the standard of truth, the 



ON CHURCH-OF-ENGLANDI SM. 



35 



perfection of wisdom, and the boundary of im- 
provement. 

No less than eight attempts have been made 
at a reformation in the Church, since the 
passing of the Act of Uniformity, and all have 
totallv failed. There seems to be a horror of 
removing the greatest absurdity, or changing the 
merest trifle. What must be the ultimate fate of 
a system which thus obstinately resists the 
progressive illumination of the human mind, and 
the desires of its best and wisest votaries ?( e ) 

Let us now see, by a few examples, how this 
lordship over faith has been exercised. 

The Church has three Creeds, or, reckoning 
the Articles, four; composed in distant ages, and 
gradually becoming more absurd, erroneous, un- 
scriptural and intolerant. The first is called the 
Apostles 9 Creed. It was indisputably not of 
apostolic composition ; nor is it expressed in 
terms borrowed from their writings. It is, how- 
ever of early date, and strictly Unitarian, The 
Trinity, the Atonement, Original Sin, and other 
gloomy reveries of later times are no part of it. 
Yet the doubtful tale of the miraculous birth of 
Christ is there ; as is also the marvellous falsehood 
of his descent into hell, which is repeated in the 
third article. That he was buried, is a separate 
clause ; there is therefore no room for the evasion 
that by " hell" is only meant the grave. Whether 
the authors and patrons of the creed, meant wi th 

d 2 



36 



ON CHURCH-OF-ENGLAND1SM. 



Calvin, that the Saviour actually was sent to the 
place, and shared the torments of the damned ; or 
that he went there, or to any other invisible region, 
as a visitor or a conqueror, there is not the least 
foundation for the notion in Scripture, nor any 
ground for its belief but mere human authority. 

The next is the Nicene Creed: which is en- 
titled to no great reverence on account of its 
original authors. Jortin observes, 44 the first 
thing they did was to quarrel, and to express 
their resentments, and to present accusations to 
the Emperor against one another. — If such 
councils made righteous decrees, it must have 
been by strange good luck." Orthodoxy was 
now grown bolder ; yet the ancient and still 
popular doctrine of the divine Unity is respected 
by an introduction similar to that of the Apostles' 
Creed. 44 We believe in one God, the Father 
Almighty, maker of all things visible and invi- 
sible." Here we find the Deity of Christ ; and 
yet a subordination to the Father is apparent: he 
has but a derived Godhead, and is spoken of as 
suffering. But where is it taught in Scripture 
that Christ was 44 God of God ; light of light; 
very God of very God; begotten, not made; of 
one substance with the Father" ? The original 
creed had simply, 44 We believe also in the Holy 
Ghost/' The advance of Trinitarianism again 
appears in the interpolations which the Church 
has adopted, relative to the third person, who is 



ON CHURCH-OF-ENGLANDISM, 



37 



styled, " The Lord and giver of life ; who 
proceedeth from the Father and the Son ; who 
with the Father and the Son together is worshipped 
and glorified. ' ' These additions are compensated, 
indeed, by the omission of the original con- 
clusion : " The holy, catholic, and apostolic 
Church anathematizes those who say that there 
was a time when the Son of God was not, and 
that before he was begotten he was not, and 
that he was made out of nothing, or out of 
another substance or essence, and is created, or 
changeable, or alterable/' 

Last comes that tremendous composition, the 
Aihanasian Creed, which is the very sublime of 
impiety and absurdity : in which contradiction is 
piled on contradiction, till the sight makes one 
giddy : where the Infinite Spirit is anatomized, 
and laid out in distinct persons : where such 
tricks are played with the Eternal God as 
jugglers use to make fools laugh: and all is 
crowned with the declaration that " except 
every one do keep this faith whole and undefined, 
without doubt he shall perish everlastingly." 

These three creeds, the 8th Article declares, 
44 may be proved by most certain warrants of 
Holy Scripture" ! 

Other extraordinary demands are made by 
these Articles upon faith, or submission, or 
credulity. The 9th teaches 44 Original or 
Birth Sin/' the sin of being born ; and though 



38 



ON CHURCH-OF- 



EKGLAXDISM. 



Christ said of children " of such is the kingdom 
of heaven," the Church declares that there is a 
" fault and corruption of the nature of every 
man — that in every person born into this world, 
deserveth God's wrath and damnation. " Justifi- 
cation by faith only, (Art. xi.) is said to be " a 
most wholesome doctrine, and very full of 
comfort" Had not James been an Apostle, he 
would scarcely have escaped an anathema 
for asserting, that " By works a man is justified, 
and not by faith only." Art. xiii, is most unchari- 
table and unscriptural. It speaks of works done 
before conversion (" the grace of Christ, and 
inspiration of his spirit,") as " not pleasant to 
God," and of " the nature of sin ;" thus holding 
up for suspicion and censure many to whom a 
messenger of heaven might declare, as to Cor- 
nelius, " Thy prayers and thine alms are come 
up for a memorial before God." Art. xviii. is still 
more offensive. " They also are to be had 
accursed, that presume to say that every man 
shall be saved by the law or sect which he 
professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life 
according to that law and the light of nature. 
For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the 
name of Jesus Christ whereby men must be 
saved." What becomes then of virtuous Hea- 
thens who never heard that name ? Or, if their 
existence be denied, what becomes of the very 
Apostle whose words are here applied in a way 



ON CHURCH-OF-ENGLA NDISM. 



59 



which he could not contemplate, and who 
himself uttered the anathematized sentiment, 
" Of a truth 1 perceive that God is no respecter 
of persons ; but in every nation he that feareth 
him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with 
him"? How dangerous is it to throw about 
thunderbolts ! How perilous, as well as pre- 
sumptuous, to attempt to occupy the throne of 
Christ, and wield his sceptre ! 

"Well mi^ht Paley remark of the establishment 
of creeds and confessions, that " they are at all 
times attended with serious inconveniences: they 
check inquiry; they violate liberty; they 
insnare the consciences of the clergy, by holding 
out temptations to prevarication: however they 
may express the persuasion, or be accommodated 
to the controversies, or the fears, of the age in 
which they are composed, in process of time, 
and by reason of the changes which are wont to 
take place in the judgment of mankind upon 
religious subjects, they come at length to con- 
tradict the actual opinions of the church, whose 
doctrines they profess to contain; and they often 
perpetuate the proscription of sects and tenets 
from which any danger has long ceased to be 
apprehended." 

The professed object of these creeds was, to 
avoid diversity of opinions! Suppose it gained: 
and if the standard thus erected be not the real 
gospel after all ; as, unless the framers were 



40 



ON CHURCH 



-OF-EX GLAND ISM, 



infallible, could not be assumed without pre- 
sumption ; they are then found false witnesses 
for God ; or rather against him, in his revelation; 
and suborners of false witness from contemporary 
millions, and successive generations. 

If they be the truth, still that truth is held 
in unrighteousness when not received on the 
proper authority — that of Christ. What is truth 
without inquiry; without knowledge ; without 
those moral influences which only attend princi- 
ples when clearly understood and firmly believed? 
Let contention rage for ever, if it can only be 
hushed into the silence of death. 

Has controversy been avoided ? Let the 
annals of the Church reply. It has raged there 
as much as if the articles had never existed, and 
on as many subjects. ( f ) 

Connexion with temporal powers, is a Scriptural 
sign of apostacy. To this there can be no plea but 
guilty; nor is there any mode of considering it, in 
which it does not appear unfavourable to genuine 
religion. The notion of an Alliance was once pre- 
valent, though it is not often advocated now. Can 
Church and State ever be independent parties, 
forming a contract? Does Christianity release 
its believers or priests from allegiance, and enable 
them to treat with their prince ? There is much 
more sedition in that notion than in any Noncon- 
formist heresy. If, as is the fact, we consider the 
Church as dependent and patronised by the 



ON CHURCH-OF-ENGLANDISM. 



41 



State, what are the consequences ? 1 . Many 
will suspect the whole to be a political trick. 
Priests hired by the State are a standing army to 
keep down obnoxious opinions. Hence in most 
countries, where religion is established, there 
has been a large proportion of secret infidels 
among the higher and literary classes. 2. The 
preferred sect will not be selected for the purity 
or freedom of its creed, but from its fitness for 
the purpose of the Civil Governor. 3. The 
great ends of public instruction will be too often 
neglected for sycophantic attendance on the 
great who dispose of Church honours. 4. The 
remuneration of the clergy will be oppressive 
and unequal ; proportioned neither to labour nor 
merit. These and a thousand evils may and 
have resulted ; and many of a political nature 
into which we cannot enter here. A privileged 
class is formed, among clergy and laity, enjoying 
peculiar rights and emoluments, and looking 
contemptuously on others, to the destruction of 
political equality, social harmony, and Christian 
liberality. 

I shall only advert to three Church mysteries, 
byway of specimen. 1. Its Trinitarian Creed, 
falsely ascribed to Athanasius, which rivals any 
thing, and every thing in Popery, from which 
this forgery came, which is indeed a distilled 
essence of incomprehensibility. 2. The Lord's 
Supper. The 28th Art. declares this to be " not 



42 



ON CHURCH-OF-ENGLANDISM. 



only a sign of the love that Christians ought to 
have among themselves one to another ; but 
rather it is a sacrament of our' redemption by 
Christ's death : insomuch that to such as rightly, 
worthily, and with faith, receive the same, the 
bread which we break is a partaking of the body 
of Christ, and likewise the cup of blessing is a 
partaking of the blood of Christ." What this 
means it is hard to say. It may not be quite 
transubstantiation : it is not further from that 
than from Christian simplicity. Baptism is the 
third mystery ; by which the child is taught 
to declare (Catechism) that he was " made a 
member of Christ, the child of God, and an 
inheritor of the kingdom of heaven and of 
whom the priest declares, (Baptismal Service,) 
after he has sprinkled him in the name of the 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that he is regene- 
rate. This is either miracle, magic, or super- 
stition. Is it not deplorable that professed 
ministers of Christ, parents, sponsors, babes, 
should be brought together in the house of God, 
to perform such scenes, in which they affix no 
meaning to what they do, and believe in no 
reality, or else are under as gross superstitions 
as those of the wildest of our enthusiastic 
sects ? 

The Romish practice of invoking saints is 
disclaimed by the Church of England ; but the 
worship of the Trinity is retained, and with it. 



ON 



CHURCH-OF-EN GLAND ISM. 



43 



of necessity, those representations of the Deity 
which are in our view so degrading. 

The 1st Article commences with a fine de- 
scription of the Deity: " There is but one living 
and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, 
or passions, of infinite power, wisdom and good- 
ness, the maker and preserver of all things, both 
visible and invisible." Compare this with such 
adorations as the following : (Litany :) " O holy, 
blessed and glorious Trinity, three persons and 
one God: have mercy upon us miserable sinners. 
Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the of- 
fences of our forefathers ; neither take thou 
vengeance of our sins : spare us, good Lord, 
spare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed with 
thy most precious blood — by the mystery of thy 
holy incarnation ; by thy holy nativity and cir- 
cumcision ; by thy baptism, fasting and temp- 
tation ; by thine agony and bloody sweat ; by 
thy cross and passion ; by thy precious death 
and burial ; by thy glorious resurrection and 
ascension." — And all this is addressed to God ! 

In Ordination, the candidate must profess to 
be moved by the Holy Ghost ; and the bishop, 
a frail, unauthorized mortal, pronounces — " Re- 
ceive the Holy Ghost, for the office of a priest ; 
— whose sins thou forgivest, they shall be for- 
given ; whose sins thou retainest, they are re- 
tained ; in the name of the Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost." Do these parties believe that the 



4 



44 



ON CHURCH-OF-EN GLAND ISM, 



one bestows, and the other receives, the Holy 
Ghost ? If so, they should speak more respect- 
fully of Methodists, Southcottians, Swedenbor- 
gians ; and if not, what is the ceremony ? 
When Christ forgave sins, he was charged with 
blasphemy. There was but one way of dis- 
proving the charge ; i. e. by a miracle, which he 
immediately wrought. So let them y or allow 
the accusation. The priest, thus commissioned, 
visits the sick : he tells the ignorant trembler, 
" I shall rehearse to you the Articles of our 
faith, that you may know whether you do 
believe as a Christian man should, or no" If 
satisfied, he proceeds, " by the authority com- 
mitted unto me, / absolve thee from all thy 
sins, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy 

Ghost." 

The constitution of the Church demands some 
attention. It is a massy and imposing edifice, 
not modelled, indeed, with Grecian simplicity, 
but shooting up, like its own Gothic buildings, 
into towers and pinnacles of various dignity, all 
of aspiring form — though while their heads are in 
the clouds, their foundations press heavily upon 
the earth, and their shade throws gloom and 
chilliness around on monuments of death ; and 
all is overtopped by the lofty spire of archiepis- 
copal eminence ; where sometimes, to finish the 
resemblance, has been seen only a vane, veering 
to every breeze of political direction. Truly, 



ON CHURCH-OF-ENGLANDISM. 



45 



this complicated apparatus of Archbishops, Bi- 
shops, Deans, Chapters, Canons, Archdeacons, 
Prebendaries, Rectors, Vicars, Curates, &c, 
with their offices, oaths, emoluments, titles and 
subordination, from the poor stipendiary to those 
who rear their " mitred front in courts and se- 
nates," is as unlike as possible to any thing in 
the New Testament. And though some of the 
means adopted in Popery to cut off the clergy 
from the common ties of family, friendship and 
society, that they may act more decidedly for the 
interests of the body, are not retained by the 
Church of England, nor, indeed, by any Pro- 
testants, there is still too much of a separate 
interest. They are not one with the people, in 
their opinions, feelings, hopes and fears ; not 
even with the laity of their own church. Who 
knows not that the clergy have a political cha- 
racter ; that on certain measures they act to- 
gether, and powerfully? These are invidious 
topics ; I wish to touch them lightly. Some 
other charges against the Romish, cannot be pre- 
ferred against the English hierarchy. The latter 
is not guilty of the affected austerity of monkery; 
and the disuse of pretended miracles, if not of 
forged Scripture, has left to sophistry and dog- 
matism the defence of the faith. (&) 

As the charge of persecution was applied alike 
to Catholic and Nonconformist Churches, an 
exemption will not be expected for the Church 



46 



ON CHURCH-OF-ENGLANDISM. 



of England, nor has she any claim. Cranmer, her 
first martyr, but suffered what he had previously 
inflicted on some unoffending Baptists : penal 
laws of great severity are but just repealed : 
Scotland, too, could tell some bloody tales : but 
waving all this, the Church has borne her fa- 
culties with tolerable meekness. God forbid 
that some classes of Dissenters should have had 
her opportunities; nor would I prefer any ac- 
cusation but of such persecution as no establish- 
ment can exist without. A certain portion is 
essential to its being. This is felt chiefly in 
privations of what is one's right; as, 1. Property: 
man tills the ground, and from it gets his bread 
by the sweat of his brow : is not that produce his 
own? But he should support religion: well, 
he does so,- — the religion which he approves ; 
which, though not exalted by the State, has 
touched his heart, reformed his character, mi- 
nistered to his consolation, filled him with hopes 
of immortality, and will, he trusts, be the inhe- 
ritance of his children, and bring them to him 
in heaven ; yet, as if he had done nothing, his 
tenth is wrung from him by Church-of-En- 
glandism. 2. An honest ambition to be useful 
is a disposition to be cherished in every good 
citizen. Talents and principles should be called 
into action for the public weal, and honourably 
rewarded. They exist ; there is the appropriate 
sphere for their exercise ; but they are kept out 



OX CHURCH-OF-ENGLANDISM. 47 

by the exclusive spirit of Church-of-Englandism. 
3. This makes a favoured and a degraded class 
in society ; a distinction which is often fatal to 
friendliness, and poisons charity. In country 
villages, how many poor Dissenters see their 
children deprived of education, unless they be 
also taught a religion they have abjured, by the 
persecuting spirit of Church-of-Englandism ! 

Amid these censures, let me render one cordial 
tribute of praise, and that is to the Liturgy, 
Making, of course, some doctrinal exceptions, 
that is indeed Christian. Excluding holy writ, 
it may challenge competition with the devout 
productions of all countries and ages. It is a 
simple, pure and noble composition. From the 
bottom of my soui do I admire it, and as far as 
my private feelings are concerned, know of no 
fitter form of words for man to hold communion 
with his Maker in. Probably much of it has 
descended from a very early age of Christianity. 
However that may be, it is worthy of the best 
days of Christianity. Bred a Dissenter, no early 
associations prompt this praise. It is the dictate 
of unbiassed conviction, which, in such a dis- 
course as this, to withhold were uncandid and 
unjust; like my censures, it is honest and 
heartfelt. 

The Church of England is but a sect, though 
it may be a fortunate and powerful one. It has 
severed itself from the rest of the Christian world. 



48 



OK C HURCH-OF-ENGLANDISM. 



Perhaps the question would not be easy of so- 
lution, whether it be properly a Popish or a Pro* 
testant sect : ( h ) for though claiming to belong 
to the Protestants, it has generally been scarcely 
owned by them ; and stopped so short of even 
what they did, and retained so much of the 
principles and spirit of the old superstition, that 
it is but of ambiguous character. Were we to 
review its history, the judgment passed in our 
hasty analysis of its constitution would be abun- 
dantly confirmed. It was the creature orioin- 
ally of capricious tyranny, struck out by the 
passion of Henry VIII., and matured by the 
Machiavelian policy of Elizabeth. The pride 
and ill advice of its prelates had their share in 
bringing Charles to the block ; for which, atone- 
ment is made by his canonization as a martyr, 
and by a service which makes a Christian blush 
at its blasphemy, and an Englishman indignant 
at its servility. In his son's reign was the me- 
morable ejection of the two thousand ministers, 
who laid the foundation of our churches, and 
whose only crime was being conscientious. 
Against the tyranny of Charles II. and James II. 
no stand was made, till it was ascertained that 
they aimed at Popery as well as tyranny ; so 
that the part taken by this sect in the Revolution 
w r as but little to its honour. (0 From that period, 
much has been gained to religious liberty ; but 
the State has given it, and not to oppose is the 



ON CHURCH-OF-ENGL ANDISM. 



49 



highest merit which can be claimed for the 
Church. Now, are these altogether the linea- 
ments of pure Christianity ? Some things may 
be good ; but what would one of the first con- 
verts, raised from the dead, say on beholding the 
whole ? " Jesus I know, and Paul I know ; 
but who are ye ?" 

To conclude: designing men, even in the 
present day, have dared to represent dissent from 
the Church as synonymous with disaffection to 
the State. It is a foul calumny. The sternest 
and sturdiest protest against the one, may coexist 
with the most enthusiastic devotion to the other. 
England was great and glorious while her religion 
was Popery. She then reared her head above 
the nations, outstripped them all in the career 
of improvement, and soared above them towards 
the heaven of liberty. The great charter of her 
freedom was then wrested from unwilling power: 
commerce and manufactures were raising her ci- 
tizens, burgesses and merchants, to wealth and 
intelligence, and placing them side by side with 
her barons ; while, from contending elements, 
arose the harmony of representative government. 
She was great while that change, called Refor- i 
mation, was proceeding, or retarded, or subsiding 
into fixedness, through successive reigns. She 
then began to wave her flag of sovereignty over 
the sea; her laws were framed in wisdom; and 
her literature, splendid in genius, profound in 

E 



50 ON CHURCH-OF-ENGLANDISM. 

learning, and mighty in originality, advanced 
with giant step. She was great at that tremen- 
dous period when the crown was trampled in the 
dust, a regal head fell on the scaffold, and Crom- 
well sat on an ungarnished throne. Episcopacy 
was not her religion then. The Church of En- 
gland fled to the wilderness : the mitre was 
crushed under sectarian feet, and the crosier 
snapped asunder by unconsecrated hands: yet 
then she was great ; not a nation but cringed for 
her friendship, and trembled at her frown. Was 
there persecution, oppression or insult, on the 
Continent, — she lifted her voice of thunder, and 
Europe's hills were moved ; her mountains quaked 
and trembled to their foundations. And while 
Episcopacy has been Church-of-Englandism, our 
country has been great and glorious still ;— yes, 
through vicissitude, great; in adversity and dis- 
appointment, in privation and suffering, in all 
changes and chances, in arms and arts, in lite- 
rature and benevolence. The monuments of her 
majesty reflect the glittering of every star of 
heaven ; and not a wind can blow that has not 
wafted from her shores some freight of charity. 
And she would be great, were this assuming 
sect lost in oblivion, with all its robes, and forms, 
and wealth, and creeds : still to her would the 
nations look, as to an elder sister of the earth, 
pre-eminent in wisdom, grace and majesty. 
Yes ; England, independently of adventitious 



ON CHURCH-OF-ENGLANDISM. 5\ 

circumstances, or predominant sects, must be 
admired and loved by all who can rightly 
think and feel; nor would the hand that might 
not object to pull down the clustering ivy from 
the oak, whose strength it wasted, and impaired 
its beauty, touch profanely one leaf of the hal- 
lowed tree. O my country ! land of my birth, 
my love, and my pride ; land of freedom and of 
glory; land of bards and heroes, of statesmen, 
philosophers and patriots ; land of Alfred and of 
Sydney, of Hampden and of Russel, of Newton, 
Locke and Milton ; may thy security, liberty, 
generosity, peace and pre-eminence, be eternal ! 
May thy children prize their birthright, and well 
guard and extend their privileges ! From the 
annals of thy renown, the deeds of thy worthies, 
the precious volumes of thy sages, may they 
imbibe the love of freedom, of virtue, of their 
country ! May the pure gospel be their portion I 
Through every future age, may they arise, as of 
yore, the protectors of the oppressed, the terror 
of tyrants, the guardians of the rights and peace 
of nations, the champions of civil and religious 
liberty ; and may they be the possessors and dif- 
fusers of genuine Christianity to all countries, 
through all generations ! Amen ! 



e 2 



( ^ ) 



LECTURE HI. 

ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND NONCONFORMITY. 



John viii. 32. 
The Truth shall make you free. 

As the corruptions of Christianity have passed 
in review before us, it cannot but have been no- 
ticed how closely they were connected with 
ecclesiastical usurpation. There is a natural 
alliance between error and slavery, truth and 
libertv. For a time they mav be dissociated ; 
but reason and scripture, history and observation, 
bear witness that they cannot permanently main- 
tain a separate existence. Freedom of inquiry 
and profession is the atmosphere in which pure 
religion breathes, or the soil in which it grows ; 
and which it must find, or make, or itself wither 
away. Hence the subjects of this Lecture are 
an appropriate transition from the mischiefs and 
miseries of the antichristian apostacy, to the 
gospel in its native simplicity, power and bles- 
sedness. 

The religious liberty of Christian Churches is 



ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, &C. 



53 



external and internal ; that which they claim of 
the civil power, and that which they allow to 
their own members. The first consists in the 
absence of all interference by the magistrate ; 
in being subject to neither penalties nor pri- 
vations, on account of faith or worship : the 
latter, in the freedom of the individuals com- 
posing such churches, to form and avow their 
own opinions of what Christ taught, without 
being subject to censure, excommunication, or 
loss of any of the advantages of Christian society 
and fellowship. Both are of great importance. 
The latter, even by sincere and eloquent advo- 
cates of the former, has been too often mis- 
understood, overlooked, or violated. They are 
alike emanations from the same principle, the 
right of private judgment; a right which, as it 
ought not to be controlled by the civil magis- 
trate, so neither should it be yielded by the 
Christian to the dictate of a priest, or council, 
or to the decision of the majority of a church : 
it is personal and inalienable. If the majority of 
this congregation were to say to any one of its 
members, " Unless you believe such a doctrine, 
you shall not approach with us to the Lord's 
table, you shall not worship with us, we proclaim 
you to be no Christian/' they would be violaters 
of Christian liberty, and though not in the same 
degree, yet would be partakers of the spirit that 
dictated the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian 



54 



ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 



Creed, that brandished over Europe the thunders 
of the Vatican, or that kindled the fires of Smith- 
field. It may be said, that when Dissenting 
Churches exclude a heretic from their com- 
munion, they deprive him of no civil rights. 
True: his civil rights are not at their disposal : 
they deprive him of all that is in their power, 
the comforts of Christian society. But has 
not every society a right to make its own laws ? 
No, not Christian churches: their laws are made 
for them by their Master ; and they cannot le- 
gislate without renouncing, virtually, the Chris- 
tian character. Personal liberty of thought and 
opinion is essential to a Christian Church. 

As many sincere friends of religious liberty do 
not take this view of the subject, it is expedient 
to advance some considerations in its proof. 

It is very clearly contrasted with the more 
prevalent notion, by the Rev. H. Taylor, (Ben 
Mordecai,) in his reply to Gibbon, in a work 
entitled " Thoughts on the Grand Apostacy." 
" Mr. G., speaking of excommunication, says, 
4 it is the undoubted right of every society to 
exclude from its communion and benefits, such 
among its members as reject or violate those 
regulations which have been established by ge- 
neral consent! Reply. This may be true of 
civil societies, but gives no right to excommu- 
nicate or banish from Christian communion ; 
because the laws which give a right to such 



AND NONCONFORMITY. 



55 



communion, are not regulations established by 
general consent, but laws established by Christ, 
the author and finisher of our faith. When the 
pure and humble religion first gently insinuated 
itself into the minds of men , the apostles claimed 
no dominion over the faith of Christians. The 
Christians of different churches were no other- 
wise connected with one another, than as they 
were all connected with Christ their head ; all 
of them were to look up to him, and not only 
every church was thus independent of any other 
in matters of faith, but so was every individual, 
and consequently no one had any power over 
another in such matters ; and they have no more 
power now than they had at first : I speak of 
matters of faith, and the right of communion, 
and the affairs of another world." 

A church means neither more nor less than 
an assembly, which may be either orderly or 
tumultuous, stated or accidental. In the New 
Testament it commonly means an assembly of 
the disciples of Christ, for the purposes of wor- 
ship and mutual edification, from which none 
were excluded but those whose immoral conduct 
disgraced their profession. 

N umerous conversions are recorded. The 
convert, on professing his belief in Jesus, as 
the Christ, the Son of God, became immediately 
entitled to all the enjoyment and advantage 
arising from attendance on Christian worship, 



56 



ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 



the Lord's Supper, and the society, instruction 
and friendship of Christians. This profession 
was, therefore, the only term of communion. 
No precept, no fact, can be alleged, to prove 
that more than this was required. 

It is abundantly demonstrated in Locke's 
" Reasonableness of Christianity," that this pro- 
fession alone constituted a Christian. Every 
Christian was a member, as his abode might 
change, of every Christian Church. There was 
no such thing as admission into a particular 
church, distinct from admission into the general 
body of believers. The modern practice of re- 
fusing such admission, or of defining Christi- 
anity, or of making more than being a Christian 
necessary for Christian fellowship, is altogether 
without scriptural warrant. 

Converts were generally baptized, but not in 
consequence of the requirement of churches. 
It was an individual concern, with which they 
had nothing to do. " We affirm," says Robinson, 
, " that baptism is not a church ordinance, that it 
is not naturally, necessarily, and actually con- 
nected with church fellowship, and consequently 
that the doctrine of initiating into the Christian 
Church by baptism, is a confused association of 
ideas, derived from masters whose disciples it is 
no honour to be. — Into what church did the 
disciples of John enter by baptism ? Was Jesus 
Christ admitted a member of a Christian Church 



AND 



NONCONFORMITY. 



by baptism ? Or into what church did the eu- 
nuch enter, when Philip alone baptized him in 
the desert ? — It is remarkable, that this positive 
law of baptism is not enforced by any penalties, 
and herein it differs from all other positive in- 
stitutes. By what right, then, do w r e affix to 
the breach of it such a severe penalty as exclu- 
sion from church fellowship?" (Works, III. 
170 — 172.) I allude more particularly to this 
subject, because the Baptists, who hold strict 
communion, are the only denomination of Chris- 
tians who can plead for their restriction any 
thing like scriptural authority. 

These converts might be in gross ignorance, 
or error, on many subjects : the apostles were, 
when first associated with their Master. But 
when once a belief in Jesus, as the Messiah, 
was produced, the rest was left for further in- 
struction ; and though a considerable diversity of 
opinions might remain, yet that diversity was 
not deemed inconsistent with their claim to the 
Christian character, and all its privileges. 

To this argument from facts, no objection can 
be raised from directions for pursuing a different 
course in the more matured state of Christian 
society. No such directions can be produced. 
The permanent law of religious association is, 
" Receive ye one another, as Christ also re- 
ceived us, to the glory of God." (Romans 
xv. 7.) " Him that is weak in the faith receive 



5$ 



ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 



ye, but not to doubtful disputations. Who 
art thou that judgest another man's servant ?" 
(Romans xiv. 1, 4.) 

Immorality, persisted in, disqualifies for the 
purposes of religious society ; and for this 
case, and this alone, the founders of Christian 
Churches gave them authority to exclude. 
They have no liberty to do so on any other 
pretence whatever. The heretic (Titus iii. 10,) 
who was to be rejected " after the first and 
second admonition/' appears evidently, from the 
use of that term, the connexion of the passage, 
and the declaration, " he that is such, is sub- 
verted, and sinneth, being condemned of him- 
self/' to be, not the conscientious holder of 
erroneous doctrines, but a partisan, one wishing 
to form a clan, and raise dissension, and em- 
ploying means, or pursuing an object, of the 
wickedness of which he was conscious. 

Christians of different opinions are, doubtless, 
at liberty to associate for the promotion of those 
opinions, and to exclude from, such combina- 
tions those who do not think with them. They 
may unite to recommend Calvinism or Armi- 
nianism, Adult Baptism or Paedobaptism, Trini- 
tarian ism or Unitarian ism ; they can then frame 
what laws they please: but they ought never 
to identify these associations with Christian 
Churches, in which they are not authorized 

•J 

teachers, but fellow disciples ; and where they 



AND NONCONFORMITY. 



59 



have no right to legislate, nor any discretionary 
power of admission, rejection, or excommu- 
nication. 

1. The first violation, therefore, of religious 
liberty, and which leads to all the rest, is that of 
particular societies infringing on the right of 
individual members, by defining Christianity. 
A Christian Church is only a body of disciples ; 
all are to obey the Master, but they are not to 
obey one another. The majority has no more 
right than the minority to erect a standard of 
faith. Those who cannot, or will not, worship 
with them, they have no power to retain ; but 
those who can, or wish to do so, they have no 
authority to reject. He who believes the divine 
mission of Christ, and acts accordingly, ought 
not to be kept out of any church professing 
to be Christian. This was the case originally, 
and consequently there were neither sects, nor 
parties, nor party names. When opinions were 
made a test, and believers were named from 
some doctrine or leader, then, 

2. Churches lost their liberty — the reign of 
Sectarianism commenced. Those who agreed 
as to some disputed tenet, had a stronger affinity 
with each other, than with the rest of the Chris- 
tian body : they united for the sake of strength 
in this internal warfare. Hence, meetings and 
councils of their pastors and leaders ; and at 
length, authority to enforce the decisions of such 



60 



ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 



meetings upon the whole sect ; so that the 
church which had tyrannized over the individual? 
was, in turn, tyrannized over by the party. To 
this succeeds, 

3. The successful appeal of some one sect or 
party to the civil magistrate, who declares that 
party to be the exclusive possessors of Chris- 
tianity, bestows upon them wealth and honours, 
and brands their opponents with disgrace, de- 
prives them of their rights, perhaps sends them 
to the dungeon or the scaffold. There was but 
another step in the ascent, when 

4, The Church itself became a temporal 
power, making monarchs and nations bow to its 
decrees. This is the mode in which believers 
lost 46 the liberty wherewith Christ hath made 
us free," and just in the inverted order has its 
restoration proceeded. The Reformation broke 
off so many limbs from the temporal sovereignty 
of Rome, but left the magistrates of each country 
lords of their subjects' consciences, and used their 
authority to patronize one sect at the expense of 
all others. The Presbyterians countenanced this 
usurpation as completely as the Episcopalians. 
The Assembly's Confession declares, that "the 
civil magistrate hath authority, and it is his duty 
to take order, that unity and peace be preserved in 
the church ; that the truth of God be kept pure 
and entire ; that all blasphemies and heresies be 
suppressed; all corruptions and abuses in wor- 



AND NONCONFORMITY. 



61 



ship and discipline prevented or reformed ; and 
all the ordinances of God duly settled, admi- 
nistered and observed. For the better effecting 
whereof, he hath power to call synods, to be 
present at them, and to provide that whatsoever 
is transacted in them, be according to the mind 
of God." Many of the sects which had not 
the opportunity of forming this unholy alliance, 
yet retained a most oppressive despotism over 
their ministers and churches. These same Pres- 
byterians declare, that 66 it belongeth to synods 
and councils ministerially to determine contro- 
versies of faith and cases of conscience ; to set 
down rules and directions for the better ordering 
of the public worship of God and government 
of his church ; to receive complaints in cases of 
maladministration, and authority to determine 
the same." Can any thing be more arbitrary 
and absurd than the following oath, exacted by 
the heads of the French Protestants, in the year 
1620: "I swear and promise before God, and 
this holy assembly, that I receive, approve and 
embrace all the doctrine taught and decided by 
the national Synod of Dort. I swear and pro- 
mise, that I will persevere in it all my life long, 
and defend it with all my power, and never 
depart from it in my sermons, college-lectures, 
writings, or conversation, or in any other manner, 
public or private. I declare also and protest, 
that I reject and condemn the doctrine of the 



62 



ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 



Arminians, &c. So help me God, as I swear 
all this without equivocation or mental reser- 
vation" ? The Independents had the honour of 
breaking the bonds of sectarian slavery, and 
claiming the rights of congregations, in which 
they were followed by the Baptists, and after- 
wards by the English Presbyterians. They 
abolished the tyranny of the few over the many, 
but still retained too generally that of the many 
over the few. The Quakers were the only party 
among the early English Nonconformists, who 
allowed internal liberty in matters of faith and 
worship. This drew upon them the reproach 
of heresy, and occasioned very general suspicion 
and antipathy: but they needed the admonition, 
" thy crown let no man take for orthodoxy 
and despotism made way amongst them, while 
liberty was dawning on others, and have led 
them to expulsions, the principle of which would 
have excluded even the illustrious Penn him- 
self. The last step back to original equality and 
liberty, was made among the General Baptists 
and the nominal Presbyterians ; many of whose 
societies now only require a man to -be a Chris- 
tian, a believer, that is, in the divine mission of 
Jesus, to welcome him to all which they can 
bestow of Christian privileges. The revival of 
Unitarianism has been, by turns, both cause 
and effect of this increased liberality of senti- 
ment. 



AND NONCONFORMITY. 



63 



Let it not be supposed that, however kindred 
in spirit they may sometimes be, I would for a 
moment compare the evils resulting from these 
aberrations of voluntary societies, with those 
produced by the interference of political au- 
thority in religious matters. From the former, 
any one may escape ; but for the latter there is 
no remedy, except the melancholy one of expa- 
triation, unless toleration be granted ; and tole- 
ration, from its nature, can be but of partial 
efficacy. The invasions of religious liberty, to 
which we have already attended, are by Eccle- 
siastics. Those by the civil power proceed on 
a different principle, and require a separate con- 
sideration. In the notice of this Lecture, the 
mention of both " Nonconformity" and " Re- 
ligious Liberty," implies a distinction, and inti- 
mates that the advocate for the one is not ne- 
cessarily the friend of the other. Such we have 
already seen is the fact. When Catholics, Epis- 
copalians, Presbyterians (properly so called), have 
been Nonconformists, it has been from accident, 
and not from principle ; by the loss of power, 
and not by the love of liberty: while Quakers 
and Congregationalists cannot become an Esta- 
blishment. The real principles of Noncon- 
formity, however, are indisputably those of 
Religious Liberty, and would produce dissent, 
not only from the Church of England, but from 



64 



ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 



any form of Christianity incorporated with the 
State. 

We dissent because human legislators exceed 
their province when they pretend to fix the 
religion of the country. Society cannot exist 
without government. It is for the good of the 
whole that we should have laws, and that their 
administration and execution should not be left 
to individual zeal, but be the peculiar duty of 
persons appointed to that office. This requires 
the surrender of much natural right, of how 
much, human wisdom must decide: it mav 
fairly include even life itself, which, when the 
good of the community requires, should be 
offered a willing and a patriotic sacrifice : but 
the rights of conscience are, from their very 
nature, inalienable. Man never did give them ; 
he never can give them. The right of believing 
where he sees evidence of truth, and of wor- 
shipping where he finds characteristics of divi- 
nity, as it cannot injure society, cannot belong 
to society. It is inherent in man, as a rational 
creature, and he cannot divest himself of it, till 
he can re-create himself, and become another 
being, and his own God. What, then, does a 
legislator mean, when he says, You shall be- 
lieve this doctrine ; you shall worship that God ; 
you are born to this religion ; we decree that you 
shall be a Deist or a Christian, a Mahometan or 



AND NONCONFORMITY. 



65 



a Pagan, a Catholic or a Protestant, and will 
punish your disobedience. And who gave you 
this right ? God ? Produce the commission, 
and work the confirming miracle. Man ? When 
and where? None could do it for themselves, 
much less for others. But you have the power 
— true ; so had Herod, (who was devoured of 
worms,) when he slew James ; so had Nero, 
(who was assassinated,) when he martyred Paul; 
so had Pilate, (who died in miserable exile,) 
when he sentenced Christ ; and so had others 
who died in splendour, but who wait in their 
graves the righteous judgment of God. You 
have the power — to do what ? To issue the de- 
cree ? And so you have to decree that robbery 
is religion, and persecution for the glory of God : 
so you have to decree that the sun shall shine 
by night, and the moon by day, and they will as 
soon obey your bidding as the mind and heart 
of man. But you can inflict the penalties : yes, 
and make martyrs of the firm, and hypocrites 
of the fearful— nothing more. No human au- 
thority has either the right or power to make 
any system the religion of any individual. We 
reverence human laws and governors up to this 
point ; but with our consciences, our worship, 
and our God, they have no business. We cannot 
belong to the Church of England, because, 
however mildly exercised, she recognizes this 
claim of man to tell with authority his fellow- 

F 



66 



ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 



man what he shall believe, and whom and how 
he shall adore. Her Articles and Liturgy have 
been rightly described, by one of her own pre- 
lates, " as a long act of parliament a decree of 
the senate deciding what we are to think of 
God, how we are to feel and speak in his pre- 
sence, and by what to obtain his blessing ! 
Did they appear to us absolutely true, and 
supremely excellent, we have never delegated, 
nor can we ever acknowledge, the authority of 
others to decide for us that they were so, and 
compel us to their belief and use. 

If the right of selecting the religion of a 
country belong to one government, it must also 
belong to all. It is not more attached to the 
Legislature of Britain than to the King of Spain ? 
the Congress of America, the Sultan of Turkey, 
the Emperor of China, or the Dey of Algiers. 
If it be right in rulers to command on this 
subject, it must also be right in subjects to 
obey ; and consequently, right to be a Protestant 
in one land, a Catholic in another, a member of 
the Greek Church in a third, a Mahometan in a 
fourth, an Idolater in a fifth ; in short, to be of 
all religions, or, which is the same thing, to 
have no religion at all. 

Legislators, by establishing a national religion, 
not only go out of their own province, but 
invade that of Christ. Their interference is at 
best unnecessary. What is their object ? To tell 



AND NONCONFORMITY. 



67 



us what to believe ? He has done that by his 
discourses. To direct our practice ? He has 
done that by his precepts. To regulate our 
worship ? He taught his disciples how to pray ; 
and it does not become them in preference to 
learn of others. Either he was unqualified for 
his work, or faithless in his duty, or we must 
find in the New Testament all which is neces- 
sary, all which is obligatory, all which is useful 
in religion, all that will make us good on earth 
and blessed in heaven. What is to be added to 
this by legislative enactment ? 

When a government defines and incorporates 
Christianity, it must do one of two things; 
either take it exactly as it is in the New Tes- 
tament, or injure it by atldition, diminution, or 
alteration. Let us adopt, for argument's sake, 
the first supposition, and take for granted that 
every established doctrine is true, and that their 
relative importance is accurately marked ; that 
every prescribed ceremony is scriptural, and the 
whole rightly arranged ; we should still dissent 
for this reason ; the authority on which this 
depends is transferred, a temporal ruler is made 
a spiritual lawgiver, an uninspired, fallible, pre- 
sumptuous man, is invested with what belongs 
not to him, and becomes, instead of Christ, 
<c the head of all things to the church.'" This 
it is our duty, as Christians, not to sanction. 
He decide what is truth; he command how 

f 2 



68 



ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 



God shall be worshipped ; he ordain rites and 
ceremonies. — Why this is exactly the authority 
which God gave to Christ ; it is an invasion and 
assumption of that authority. When did he 
cede that dominion, or God reclaim it, to be- 
stow on civil magistrates ? Can governments 
or nations give to one, what God has given to 
■another ? Is the gift of God to Christ reversed 
by a popular vote, or royal edict ? Or can a 
decree of heaven be repealed by act of par- 
liament ? 

But it is pleaded that the intention is not to 
supersede divine authority, but to make religion 
more venerable and efficacious by legislative 
sanction ; in other words, to make God more 
venerable by sovereign dignity, heaven more 
desirable by wealth and titles, and hell more 
fearful by fines and dungeons. This is aug- 
menting the light of day, by kindling tapers, 
and the stability of the earth, by building but- 
tresses. Absurd as the plea is, it cannot be 
admitted. The imposition of creeds and prac- 
tices (whatever be said of their being only 
explanations, having scriptural authority, &c.) 
is an invasion of his supremacy, who alone 
was commissioned of God to dictate our faith 
and worship, and who has done so for all the 
world, and for ever. 

This may seem to some too abstract a reason 
for dissent; but it is, I am convinced, the real 



AND NONCONFORMITY. 



69- 



strength of our vindication. It is the scriptural 
foundation of our claims, as the first was our 
natural. We abjure incorporated religions as 
inconsistent with natural right and Christian 
duty. All men have a native equality, which, 
however they may relinquish in some things on 
entering society, they retain in matters of re- 
ligion. This is violated whenever any difference 
is made between them on a merely religious 
account. All Christians are bound to submit 
to Christ in matters of revelation, and violate 
this duty by submitting to any dictation of 
faith or practice. These are the basis of religious 
liberty — these are the pillars of Nonconformity 
— it rests firmly on natural right and Christian 
duty. 

We have been arguing on the most favourable 
supposition, that the religion established is pure 
Christianity ; but another was mentioned, that it 
is in some way or other corrupt ; and this is by 
far the most probable. We must believe it to 
happen, unless we can give those who incorporate 
Christianity with the State, credit both for the 
perfect rectitude of their hearts, and the absolute 
infallibility of their understandings. Unless they 
combine these two qualifications, either of which 
none but Christ ever had, they are unfit to give 
us a human transcript of a divine book, a human 
establishment of a divine religion. It must 
artake of their own imperfection. Granting 



70 



ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 



the Church of England to be the best esta- 
blishment in the world, this objection would 
make us Dissenters. We prefer a perfect religion 
in the New Testament^ to a corrupt one in the 
Articles and Prayer -book. Each must judge for 
himself of this contrariety. It is scarcely 
possible, considering the number of the pro- 
positions expressed or implied, and practices 
appointed, in the established formulary, but that 
every thinking man should find some incon- 
sistency with the New Testament. According 
to our opinions it is most glaring: for instance, 
the word of God says that there is one God, the 
Father ; the law of the land ordains that in the 
unity of the Godhead there are three persons, 
equal in power and glory, the Father, the Son, 
and the Holy Ghost : the one describes God as 
spiritual and unchanging ; the other enacts that 
he was incarnate, born, circumcised, crucified, 
buried and exalted. Mercy in Scripture is 
free and unpurchased ; in the Prayer-book, 
bought by vicarious satisfaction. In the one, 
God is the impartial, benevolent and universal 
Father ; in the other, he limits salvation by 
arbitrary decrees : in the one, man, though 
feeble, is the child of God ; in the other, he is 
condemned for birth-sin, and totally depraved. 
Divine authority proffers salvation for sincere 
obedience, and political authority enacts dam- 
nation for disbelief of the Athanasian Creed. 



AND NONCONFORMITY. 



71 



Did the two systems come to us with equal 
authority, there cannot be a moment's doubt of 
our choice; but when we view the one as a 
divine gift, and the other as human imposition, 
it were indeed madness to purchase with our 
consciences the exchange of bondage for liberty, 
of darkness for light, and of a noisome dungeon 
for the pure and free air of heaven. 

I have not patience to rake together the petty- 
fogging absurdities, contradictions and super- 
stitions about crosses, and rings, and kneeling, 
and bowing, and altars, and Easter, and such 
like things, which in rich abundance disfigure 
the practices of the Church, and to one educated 
a Dissenter make it a matter of some toil and 
study to drill himself, so as to execute correctly 
the manoeuvres and evolutions of divine worship. 
If men think they can please God by getting up 
such exhibitions, let them try ; but not impose 
them on others for Christianity. 

It is lamentable to observe, how little of 
religious liberty there has ever been in the world. 
Egypt, the first of nations, led the way in making 
religion the tool of government, and affixing 
criminality to Nonconformity. The Israelites 
were prevented by terror, from sacrificing to 
Jehovah according to the custom of their proge- 
nitors. In Babylon, the lions' den awaited praying 
to God, when the king commanded not to pray ; 
and the fiery furnace, refusing to worship an imago, 



72 



ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 



when he commanded its adoration. In free and 
polished and enlightened Greece, the wisest and 
purest of sages, the Apostle of nature, the 
Unitarian of reason, Socrates, was judicially 
condemned and executed for impiety to the 
national gods. In Home, one of the earliest 
laws was, " Let no one have particular gods of 
his own, or bring new ones into his house, or 
receive strange ones unless allowed by edict* 9 
Proselyting by force is a part of the religion of 
Mahomet: and the apostate Christian Church, 
like her apocalyptic emblem, has been " drunk 
with the blood of saints and martyrs," while 
her regal slaves have proffered the horrid 
beverage to her lips, in long succession, from the 
lords of ancient Rome to the restored princes of 
the passing hour. The very notion of esta- 
blishment includes that of a difference between 
some who are patronized, and others who are 
only tolerated ; which subjects the latter to a 
degradation of caste, only to be escaped by the 
fortunate convert, or the unprincipled apostate. 
True to the commonly-adopted creed, this 
decree of political election and reprobation has 
no respect of good works, but draws a line 
which neither merit in the excluded, nor worth - 
lessness in the favoured, can efface. It not only 
deprives of deserved honours and rewards many 
who deserve well of their country, but applies 
their property to the support of the very system 



AND NONCONFORMITY. 



73 



which denies the appropriate remuneration of 
their services : an ingenious refinement, like 
compelling a prisoner to purchase his fetters; or 
like the law of a certain country, where the 
victims of its institutions are sometimes doomed 
to pay the expenses of the trial which condemns 
them, and of the scaffold on which they are 
executed. 

infringements of religious liberty invade the 
rights of prince as well as subject, and seem the 
result of their being blinded by bigotry, or 
overruled against their own interest by a faction 
calling itself a church. Their prerogative is 
limited, and agents and counsellors must be 
selected from a party. There may be talent, 
wisdom, loyalty and zeal ; but their possessor 
must remain unemployed and obscure, perhaps 
be driven to seek his meed of wealth and fame 
in foreign service, because a test interposes 
between prince and subject. This subservience 
to a church has ruined many sovereigns : this 
undue power has been their destruction. It lost 
Spain the United Provinces. It impoverished 
France, and enriched England by that tide of 
Protestant emigration, which so mightily ad- 
vanced our manufacturing superiority. It made 
execrable the memory of Henry VIII. With 
Mary's name (herself an amiable woman) it has 
for ever connected the epithet of bloody. It 
stained the brilliant reign of Elizabeth. It 



74 ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 

made James I. the ridicule of all nations. It 
brought Charles I. to the block. It made 
Charles II. the pensioner of France, It hurled 
James II. from the throne, and consigned the royal 
family of Stuart to beggary, contempt and exile. 
Whatever evils sovereigns may dread in religious 
liberty, surely they cannot be greater than those 
of intolerance. 

But why should not the medium of an establish- 
ment with toleration be universally satisfactory? 
For this reason, that a medium between good and 
evil is not so desirable as good unmixed. There 
is something disgraceful and galling in the term 
toleration. It implies inferiority ; it imputes cri- 
minality ; it brands with disgrace. Admitting the 
right to tolerate is also admitting the right not 
to tolerate, i. e. to persecute. It is admitting 
the authority and capacity of governments to 
decide between religious truth and error, ortho- 
doxy and heresy, pure worship and idolatry. 
They are no more qualified than authorized, if 
we may judge by experience. What idolatry so 
gross as not to be established ? What religion 
so pure as not to be persecuted ? Is Christianity 
true ? Its author and founders were dissenters 
and martyrs. Is the Athanasian Creed the 
gospel? Athanasius was banished. Is Arianism 
true? Arius was excommunicated and deposed, 
and perhaps poisoned ; and many of his followers 
put to death. Are Dissenters right ? They 



AND NONCONFORMITY. 



75 



suffered long and heavily. Is the Church \ Its 
first primate was burnt for heresy. Calvinists, 
Arminians, Papists, Protestants. Presbyterians, 
Quakers, all have been legally criminal and 
punished, and all their discordant theories in 
different circumstances have been the religions 
of rulers. There should be better credentials 
than these before their judgment is deferred to. 
What has a Dissenter done that he is to be only 
tolerated ? He has read the Scriptures, con- 
sidered their meaning, overcome the prejudices 
of education, or the power of fashion; made 
sacrifices to conscience : and is he therefore 
disgraced ? The Episcopalian himself becomes 
a Dissenter across the Tweed ; he is tolerated 
there : and why is he there inferior to the very 
Presbyterian on whom he looks down here? 
Does crossing a river, or the sea, change religion 
into superstition, truth into error, conscien- 
tiousness into criminality ? " Toleration/ 5 says 
an admirable writer, 4i is a disgrace to those who 
assume the right of granting it, and an insult to 
those who are compelled to receive it. For 
what would you tolerate I Would you tolerate 
what is right, or what is wrong; — the per- 
formance of a duty, or the commission of a 
crime ?" ( k ) 

But perfect religious liberty would be an 
innovation. On what ? Paganism ; for thence 
came the connexion of religion with the state : 



76 



ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 



— Popery ; for thence came dominion over con- 
science in Christianity. It commends itself, 
therefore, to the Christian and the Protestant. 
What are all improvements but innovations? 
What were Moses, Christ, the Apostles, the 
Reformers, the founders of the Church of 
England, those who invited William III., and 
those who settled the crown on the house o^ 
Hanover ? All innovators. Or if the word 
must bear an odious sense, what is slavery, 
tyranny, persecution, toleration, but innovation; 
for " from the beginning* * of civil society, or of 
Christianity, " it was not so." Nor is the expe- 
riment new or dangerous. The liberal toleration 
which this country has enjoyed for ages, is a 
good preparation for it, and on the continent 
excited the same dreadful predictions of mischief, 
fanaticism and anarchy, as are repeated against 
the nobler system of Christian equality. In many 
of the American States; in Holland; the trial 
has been amply successful: look too at Canada; 
Papist and Protestant are there on equal terms ; 
both, or neither, established or tolerated. Each 
is taxed only for his own church. The stream has 
here risen above the fountain, and that is given 
to the colony, which is denied to the parent 
state. 

By the first article of the constitution of 
Pennsylvania, which is a declaration of the rights 
of conscience, William Penn, the Quaker, gave 



AND NONCONFORMITY. 



77 



a new and noble example to legislators, which 
we hope thev will one day imitate. It runs 
thus : " In reverence to God, the Father of 
lights and spirits, the author as well as object of 
all divine knowledge, faith and worship, I do, 
forme and mine, declare and establish, for the 
first fundamental of the government of this 
country, that every person that doth or shall 
reside therein, shall have and enjoy the free 
possession of his or her faith, and exercise of 
worship toward God, in such way and manner 
as every such person shall in conscience believe 
is most acceptable to God. And so long as 
every such person useth not this Christian liberty 
to licentiousness, or the destruction of others, 
that is to say, to speak loosely or profanely or 
contemptuously of God, Christ, the holy Scrip- 
tures, or religion ; or commit any moral evil or 
injury against others in their conversation ; he 
or she shall be protected in the enjoyment of 
the aforesaid Christian liberty, by the civil ma- 
gi strate." 

Would religious liberty hurt Christian truth, 
veil its evidences, dim its brightness, or bound 
its influence ? No : Christianity is injured by 
adventitious aid. She stands best alone. " Im- 
posture is destitute of a firm foundation of its 
own to stand upon. However specious it may 
appear to be, it cannot abide the eye of the ex- 
aminer. Reason revolts at it, and revelation 



78 



OX RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 



condemns it. Its only dependence is upon 
something adventitious. It naturally turns its 
eye to political authority, and the power of the 
sword. Destitute of arguments, it can only 
force its way by sanguinary laws. These it 
procures, by all its own arts of fallacy and fraud, 
to be enacted against recusants and -Dissenters. 
Cruel laws and preposterous measures are ever 
in its suit. Injustice is the foundation of its 
throne. Ruthless tyranny is its sceptre. Inca- 
pable of subsisting but by plunder and rapine, it 
robs mankind of all their rights. At its tribu- 
nals, even the rights of conscience cannot be 
redeemed at a less ransom than that of men's 
lives. In all these respects incorporations level 
Christianity with base imposture. Though the 
religion of Jesus be the only revealed religion 
upon earth, and is entitled to build her throne 
on the ruins of imposture in every possible 
shape ; yet let it not be once said, that she ever 
claimed, or ever permitted any of her friends to 
claim, to build her kingdom on the ruins of 
natural justice, and the wreck of mankind's 
inviolable rights ! Let none, either of her mis- 
taking friends or designing foes, dare to affirm 
that she authorizes any description of Christians 
to build even their purest profession of attach- 
ment to her doctrines and institutions, on the 
supersedure of the rights of one individual, 
whether he be her devoted friend, or her deter- 



AND NONCONFORMITY. 



79 



mined foe ! She is, then, no more that last and 
best gift of God to man ; that true Christianity, 
which in the Scripture, her only glass, smiles 
with benignity upon all the rights of mankind." 
( Graham on Establishments.) It is evident that 
such proceedings have not done more to preserve 
truth, than to perpetuate error. 

But religious instruction for the bulk of the 
people should be provided. Let it by all means. 
Who instruct them now ? Whose schools ex- 
clude half the population of the country — those 
of the Sectaries or of the Establishment } Who 
raise the character of the poor by discourses 
which they can understand and feel ? What 
sort of instructors will they generally be, who 
owe their office, not to the people, but to pa- 
tronage ? What is the fact ? Where dissent is 
tolerated, is not more knowledge diffused by 
voluntary exertion than by established institu- 
tions ? We may read, in broad characters, the 
importance of liberty to religious light, in those 
countries where the genuine spirit and tendency 
of slavery is unmitigated by the corrective of 
even tolerated dissent. How deplorable is their 
condition! There the populace are uniformly 
sunk in the most abject ignorance and super- 
stition. There priests and people, blind leaders 
of the blind, sink together into the very bar- 
barism of ignorance. There is the grave of 



80 



ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 



intellect and of knowledge, of morals and of 
freedom. 

And what need be feared from perfect reli- 
gious liberty as to the peace of society? Poli- 
tical interference gives bitterness and fury to 
the controversies of sects, by holding out emo- 
luments and power as the prize of contention; 
— without this, theological warfare is harmless : 
it neither robs nor murders. Placed thus on 
equal terms, the passions hushed, truth would 
be pursued more disinterestedly ; charity would 
prevail ; Christianity would reassume her pri- 
meval simplicity and purity ; and, cleansed from 
internal corruptions, her professors, by mutual 
knowledge, and examination, united in mind 
and heart, the path would be again open for 
conversion, and the gospel would go forth " con- 
quering and to conquer." 

Paley's defence of Establishments is com- 
prised in the following propositions : t£ The 
knowledge and profession of Christianity cannot 
be upholden -without a clergy; a clergy cannot 
be supported without a legal provision ; a legal 
provision for the clergy cannot be constituted 
without the preference of one sect of Christians 
to the rest." [Moral Philosophy, Book vi. 
Ch. ix.) This argument is as applicable to 
Astronomy, or any other science, as to Chris- 
tianity ; and as fallacious and inconsistent with 



AND NONCONFORMITY. 81 

experience in the one case, as in the other. 
Not one of these three propositions is true ; and 
the argument requires the truth of all. The 
first and second are disproved by the history of 
the early Christians, of the Quakers, and of 
other Dissenters ; and the third, by the exam- 
ples, just now alluded to, of Holland, Canada 
and the United States. Even if true, the con- 
clusion might, and if what has been already 
urged be admitted, it would be destroyed by the 
unavoidable evils attending establishments. The 
first allegation is very unfortunate ; as it cannot 
be denied that the best defences of Christianity, 
which have appeared in our language, have been 
the work of Dissenters. Paley himself did little 
more than abridge, and select from, the writings 
of Lardner. Indeed, the Episcopalian Clergy 
are most undesirable defenders of Christianity, 
because many of the objections of unbelievers 
are true of their system, though not of the gospel. 
They have felt this incumbrance, and accord- 
ingly have succeeded best when they have kept 
that system out of sight, and written as much 
like Dissenters as possible. They are like 
David in the armour of Saul, oppressed by its 
weight, and shackled by its trappings; while 
the peasant boy, in the freedom of honest zeal 
and truth, easily brings down the giant of 
infidelity. 

G 



ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 



" Were the book of Scripture/' says Robinson, 
" like that of nature, laid open to universal in- 
spection ; were all ideas of temporal rewards 
and punishments removed from the study of it ; 
that would come to pass in the moral world, 
which has actually happened in the w r orld of 
human science ; each capacity would find its 
own object, and take its own quantum. Newtons 
will find stars without penalties, Miltons will 
be poets, and Lardners Christians without re- 
wards. Calvins will contemplate the decrees 
of God, and Baxters will try to assort them 
with the spontaneous volitions of men ; all, like 
the celestial bodies, will roll on in the quiet 
majesty of simple proportion, each in his proper 
sphere shining to the glory of God the Creator. 
But alas, we have not so learned Christ !" 

Both Protestants and Nonconformists are 
inconsistent, w r hen they abandon the broad prin- 
ciple of religious liberty. What justifies sepa- 
ration from the Church of Rome, but the truth 
that the Bible alone is the religion of Christians; 
the Bible to be interpreted by every man for 
himself? When once the Reformers saddled it 
with their own interpretations, they abandoned 
the great cause for which they had struggled, 
and the only ground on which they could safely 
and honourably stand. If an authoritative in- 
terpretation must be coupled with it, who would 



AND NONCONFORMITY. 



83 



not prefer that of Rome to that of England or 
Geneva, antiquity to novelty, splendour to po- 
verty, and the fellowship of nations to that of 
provinces ? In like manner, when Dissenters 
make and impose creeds, we may ask, Why 
seek ye " to put a yoke upon the neck of the 
disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were 
able to bear ?" You claim the right of private 
judgment ; allow it then, there, where only you 
can allow, or prohibit, within your churches. 
Be not more strenuous for opinions, than for 
charity and liberty. If their sacrifice be de- 
manded, it is more likely to be on the altar of 
error than on that of truth. Ye are brethren ; 
" see that ye fall not out by the way prefer 
the uniformity of love to that of faith, and the 
diversity of opinions to that of feelings and 
hearts. It is only thus that a fair reply can be 
given to the taunts of the enemies of religious 
liberty. The Catholics have always said to the 
Protestants, " You deny the authority of our 
Church, and yet you are dictated to by ma- 
gistrates and synods. " The Establishment has 
always reproached sects, " You demur to our 
creeds and articles, yet you have creeds and 
articles to which you subscribe and submit/' 
And these again say to the congregations, "You 
will not own the power of associated represen- 
tatives of churches, and yet each church requires 

g 2 



84 



ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 



of individuals that they should hold certain doc- 
trines, on peril of expulsion." Where, then, is 
the difference ? This can never be repelled but 
bv all churches having no creed but the Bible, 
and recognizing the right of all to its interpre- 
tation. 

44 Charity," and not faith, 44 is the bond of 
perfectness" in Christian Churches. It is me- 
lancholy to recollect what excellent men, 44 of 
whom the world was not worthy/' have been 
kept out, or turned out, of the communion 
not only of the Established, but of Dissenting 
Churches, by the use of creeds, to the destruc- 
tion of liberty. How many of them would never 
have admitted, or would promptly have expelled, 
such men as Watts or Doddridge, Lardner, Lind- 
sey, Baxter or Robinson ? Even our great and good 
and glorious Milton, the man of whom England 
has most reason to be proud, was thrust back 
from the doors of her Church. In his 44 Reason 
of Church Government urged against Prelaty," 
he adverts to this fact, as a motive to his exer- 
tions in the work of Reformation. 44 Were it 
the meanest under-service, if God, by his se- 
cretary conscience, enjoin it, it were sad for me 
if I should draw back ; for me especially, now 
when all men offer their aid to help, ease and 
lighten the difficult labours of the Church, to 
whose service, by the intentions of my parents 



AND NONCONFORMITY. 



S5 



and friends, I was destined of a child, and in 
mine own resolutions, till corning to some ma- 
turity of years, and perceiving what tyranny had 
invaded the Church, and that he who would take 
orders must subscribe slave, and take an oath 
withal ; which, unless he took with a conscience 
that would retch, he must either strait perjure 
or split his faith ; I thought it better to prefer a 
blameless silence, before the sacred office of 
speaking, bought and begun with servitude and 
forswearing. Howsoever, thus church-outed by 
the prelates, hence may appear the right I have 
to meddle with these matters." 

This exclusive spirit is unwarranted, dis- 
graceful and pernicious. The rejection of a 
sincere Christian from Christian fellowship has 
no foundation in Scripture authority, or primitive 
example, it degrades a Christian Church into 
a club of bigots. Were it once destroyed, sec- 
tarianism would expire. The hostile names, 
derived from leaders, or peculiar doctrines, would 
be disused, or at least would no longer describe 
churches, which would be only Christian. Much 
would be lost to the cause of a party ; but more 
would be gained for the cause of truth, peace 
and charity. 

In renouncing an intolerant system, let us 
not be uncharitable towards the many excellent 
persons, both Churchmen and Dissenters, by 



I 



86 ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 

whom that system is honestly and piously sup- 
ported, as a necessary protection for pure religion. 
We spend upon that all our hostility ; and leave 
for them only the hearty affection of countrymen, 
Christians and brethren. Especially let us render 
the well-merited tribute of praise to those illus- 
trious Nonconformists, who, whatever may have 
been their failings, were the sincere friends and 
bold champions of religious liberty ; for it must 
not be forgotten that the real principle of Non- 
conformity is that of the right of private judg- 
ment, of universal religious liberty; and the cause 
of the one has generally been that of the other 
also. From Nonconformity has sprung Unita- 
rianism, with which religious liberty is essentially 
connected ; which rapidly follows, or produces 
that liberty, and may therefore be called " the 
truth," which " shall make you free/' The 
secession of the two thousand was a glorious 
protest against spiritual domination. As reli- 
gious liberty is our noblest heritage, those who 
have vindicated it are our best benefactors ; 

andamongst these, the English Nonconfor- 
mists hold a proud pre-eminence. Their minds 
were powerful and enlightened ; their devo- 
tion fervent ; their sacrifices great and severe ; 
their triumphs splendid ; and be their memories 
blessed and immortal ! Their principles, justly 
stated and consistently maintained, are our glory. 



AND NONCONFORMITY. 



87 



They are deduced from our Bibles, and graven 
in our hearts. They shall be transmitted from 
generation to generation, a rich inheritance, and 
last, like hope, which ends only in fruition, 
till Conformity and Nonconformity alike ex- 
pire in the universal brotherhood of Christie 
anity. 



( 88 1 



LECTURE IV. 

ON UNITARIANISM. 

Zechariah xiv. 9. 

In that day shall there be One Lord, and his 
name, One. 

The doctrine of the Divine Unity is of im- 
mense importance. It is the soul of Judaism, 
the foundation of Christianity, the noblest dis- 
covery of reason, the glory of revelation, the 
centre of religious truth, the antidote of infide- 
lity, the death blow of idolatry, the spring of 
Reformation, the guiding star of free inquiry, 
the companion of liberty, the parent of piety, 
the source of light in the mind and goodness in 
the heart, and the inheritor of supreme dominion 
over faith, to which it is directed by prophecy, 
and will be conducted by Providence, in all 
nations. 

There can be but one God. It is impossible 
to associate a correct notion of the attributes of 
Deity with a plurality of possessors. An ab- 
solute monarch can have no coadjutors. Omni- 



ON UNITARIAN ISM. 



89 



potence, infinity and eternity, can neither be a 
divided portion, nor a common inheritance. The 
admission of one omnipotent excludes that of 
a second omnipotent; of one infinite that of a 
second infinite; of one eternal and uncaused 
being, that of another eternal and uncaused 
being: all addition or multiplication of divine 
persons is precluded by the very idea of God, 
who must be the sole possessor of absolute per- 
fection. 

The Divine Unity is not a barren speculation, 
or a solitary truth. This single proposition, 
standing as the representative of its kindred 
truths and genuine consequences, is the sub- 
stance of Christianity. It is the sun in the firma- 
ment of religious knowledge ; inferior doctrines 
are bound to it, as by the attractive power of na- 
ture, they shine in its light, and round it revolve 
in harmony. It would not be difficult, by fair 
argumentation, to trace this affinity; but without 
entering on so wide a field, we would observe 
that Scripture has blended the Divine Unity 
with whatever it has declared of most importance 
in faith or practice : — with the fatherly character 
of God; " To us there is one God, the Father ;" 
66 one God and Father of all, who is above all, 
and through all, and in you all — with his un- 
rivalled goodness; " Why callest thou me good? 
there is none good but one ; that is God — with 
the limited and temporary dispensation of Ju- 



90 ON UNITARIAN ISM. 

daism ; H Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is 
one Lord:" — with the universality of Chris- 
tianity ; 44 The Lord shall be king over all the 
earth. In that day shall there be one Lord, and 
his name One:" — with the certainty of prophecy; 
44 I am God, and there is none else ; I am God, 
and there is none like me, declaring the end 
from the beginning, and from ancient times the 
things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel 
shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure :"— 
with divine homage ; 44 Thou shalt worship the 
Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve :" 
— with the mission of Christ, and eternal life; 
44 This is life eternal, to know thee, the only 
true God; and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast 
sent:" — with the impartiality of the divine 
dealings; 44 Is he the God of the Jews only? 
Is he not also of the Gentiles ? Yes, of the 
Gentiles also, seeing it is one God it. — with 
the mediation of the man Christ, and the uni- 
versality of salvation ; 44 There is one God, and 
one mediator between God and men, the man 
Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all:" 
— with the summary of our duty ; 44 There is one 
God ; and there is none other but he : and tb 
love him with all the heart, and with all the 
understanding, and with all the soul, and with 
all the strength, and to love his neighbour as 
himself, is better than all whole burnt-offerings 
and sacrifices :"~ with the abhorrence of op- 



OX UNIT ARI AXISM. 



91 



pression, injustice and unkindness; " Have we 
not all one Father ? and, hath not one God 
created us ?' — ■ with the glowing language of de- 
votion ; " Now unto the King eternal, immortal 
and invisible, the only God, be honour and 
glory for ever and ever !" * Let not, then, the 
suspicion be harboured, or the charge adduced, 
that we over-rate this tenet, for we only follow 
the leading of Scripture in raising it to the 
highest elevation. 

The discussion of Unitarianism has been much 
embarrassed, and its cause injured, by its being 
mixed up with the private opinions of its friends. 
There is gross mistake, or wilful injustice, in 
reckoning whatever is held by certain Unitarians 
essential to Unitarianism itself. The humanity 
of Christ is not essential to Unitarianism. Al- 
though differing from most respectable authority, 
I have no hesitation in deeming such limitation 
most improper. It is inconsistent with the ety- 
mology and meaning of the term, and its histo- 
rical use. Dr. Price was an Unitarian as well 
as Dr. Priestley : so is every worshipper of the 
Father only, whether he believe that Christ was 



* 1 Cor. viii. 6; Ephes. iv. 6; Malt. six. 17; Deut. vi. 4; 
Zech. xiv. 9 ; Isaiah xlvi. 9, 10; Matt. iv. 10; John xvii. 3 ; 
Romans iii. 29, 30; 1 Tim. li. 5, 6 ■ Mark xii. 32, 33 ; Mai. 
ii. 10; 1 Tim. i. 17. The word " wise' 1 is omitted, according 
to the corrected text of Griesbach. 



92 



ON UNITARIANISM. 



created before all worlds, or first existed when 
born of Mary. Philosophical Necessity is no 
part of Unitarianism : to some Unitarians it 
seems the plain dictate of reason and Scripture, 
illustrative of the character of God and plans of 
Providence, a glory around the cross of faith, 
and a rock for the anchor of hope ; but others 
think it inconsistent with the threatening^ and 
promises of God, and the responsibility of man ; 
and a similar diversity obtains among the specu- 
lative of other denominations. Materialism is 
no part of Unitarianism. Some of us believe 
that man is formed of one substance, others of 
two : some that unconsciousness prevails from 
death to the resurrection ; and others that the 
transition is immediate to bliss and glory, or to 
punishment, of the separated spirit. The denial 
of angels or devils is no part of Unitarianism : 
some believe in one, or the other, or in both. 
There are certain doctrines which we agree in 
asserting, and others commonly held which we 
deny. While such passages as the following 
remain, to each of which might be added a 
number of similar declarations, we cannot admit 
the doctrines to which they are opposed, of a 
Trinity, the equality of Christ with the Father, 
imputed sin or righteousness, and vindictive or, 
eternal punishment: " There is none other God, 
but one." 64 Thou shalt have no other gods 
before me." " My Father is greater than I." 



ON UNITARIANISM* 



93 



M The head of Christ is God." " The soul that 
sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the 
iniquity of the father, neither shall the father 
bear the iniquity of the son." " Not every one 
that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter 
into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth 
the will of my Father, which is in heaven." 
■" God will not always chide, neither will he 
keep his anger for ever." * While, on the other 
hand, the notions of Christianity which prevail 
amongst us, of the proper unity, benevolent cha- 
racter and sole claim to worship, of God, the 
Father ; the mission of Christ for the salvation 
of the world ; the necessity of holiness alone 
for obtaining the divine favour ; a resurrection to 
impartial judgment ; and the ultimate restoration 
of all things, are not only scriptural in each 
particular, but, combined, present the great out- 
line of New Testament teaching. 

" I am the first, and I am the last, and besides 
me there is no God." " God is love." <c The 
hour cometh, and now is, when the true wor- 
shippers shall worship the Father." " He 
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy spirit 
and with power." " The Father sent the Son 
to be the saviour of the world." " The grace of 
God, which bringeth salvation to all men, hath 



* ] Cor. viii. 4 ; Exodus xx. 3 ; John xiv. 28 ; 1 Cor. xi. 3 ; 
Ezek. xviii. 20 j Matt. vii. 21 j Psalm ciii. 9. 



94 



ON UNIT Aft I ANISM. 



appeared, teaching us that denying ungodliness 
and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, 
righteously and godly, in this present world." 
" Therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, 
because we trust in the living God, who is the 
saviour of all men. 5 ' " Since by man came 
death, by man came also the resurrection of the 
dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in 
Christ shall all be made alive." " We must all 
appear before the judgment seat of Christ ; that 
every one may receive the things done in his 
body according to that he hath done, whether 
it be good or bad." " The creature itself shall 
be delivered from the bondage of corruption 
into the glorious liberty of the children of God." 
" In the seed of Abraham shall all the kindreds 
of the earth be blessed."* 

This is Unitarianism. Can it be false ? Then 
what becomes of Scripture, for in its very terms, 
without perversion, are all the doctrines of Unita- 
rianism expressed, and those denied to which they 
are opposed ! Where this is the case, to those 
who admit the authority of the New Testament, 
controversy is at an end. Statement is proof; 
declaration is demonstration ; and Unitarianism 



* Isaiah xliv. 6; 1 John iv. 8 ; John iv. 23 3 1 John iv. 14 ; 
Titus ii. 11 3 according to the marginal reading of the received 
translation; 1 Tim. iv. 10; 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22; 2 Cor. v. 10; 
Romans viii. 21 3 Acts iii. 25. 



ON UNITARIAN1SM. 



95 



becomes identical with Christianity. Its refuta- 
tion is that of Scripture and of reason. It is " built 
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, 
Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner 
stone." And what shall dismantle such an edi- 
fice ? Will the breath of man blow it down ? 
Shall it totter beneath the thunders of excom- 
munication ? Will it be fired by those flames 
of inquiry in which perish the wood, hay and 
stubble of human invention ? Will it fall in the 
storm, or moulder with age ? No. It is immu- 
table truth : a building of God ; eternal as the 
beavens : like them bidding defiance to human 
hostility ; and like them too, shedding be- 
nignant influences on the vain assailants. 

This scriptural proof may receive confirmation 
from various considerations, which can be but 
briefly noticed. 

Judaism was Unitarianism. It was instituted 
and supported by divine direction and agency, 
to preserve in the world the knowledge of the 
One God. This object appears conspicuous in 
the origin, institutions, administration and results 
of that singular system. 

The Jewish system may be considered as 
commencing with the call of Abraham. Idolatry 
was then rapidly becoming universal. The 
father of the faithful remained steady to the 
worship of the only God: for this he was dis- 
tinguished ; for this separated ; for this rewarded 



96 



ON UNITARI ANISM. 



in his posterity ; for this promised that his seed 
should inherit the land, and from him descend 
one in whom all nations should be blessed. 
The prayers of Abraham, and the communi- 
cations of Deity to him, are detailed in many 
places. Those prayers are addressed to one 
person ; those revelations made by, or in the 
name of, one person. To him was no Trinity 
revealed ; by him was no Trinity adored. The 
language of Abraham is, " Lord God, what wilt 
thou give me?" " May Ishmael live before thee:" 
and that of the Deity is, 44 / am the Lord, that 
brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees ; / will 
bless thee, and thy seed after thee." Judaism, 
therefore, in its origin, is Unitarianism. It 
commences with the selection .and reward of 
Abraham, for adoring one God amid general 
apostacy to Polytheism. 

Judaism was Unitarian in its institutions. 
There was no revelation of a Trinity to the pa- 
triarchs who succeeded Abraham. Adoration is 
offered to, promises are made by, the same indi- 
vidual Jehovah. One after another is celebrated 
for treading in his steps. His posterity are 
enslaved in Egypt ; the time of their deliverance 
arrives ; Moses is commissioned to effect it. 
" Thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, the 
Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, 
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath 
sent me unto you. This is my name for ever, 



ON UNITAR1 ANISM. 



97 



and this is my memorial unto all generations/' 
We are not then left to infer, from its not being" 
recorded, that in the intermediate time no reve- 
lation of some other person or persons in the 
Godhead had been made : it is here directly 
negatived, not only for the past but for futurity. 
The laws afterwards given are such as from this 
we might expect. So far as they relate to 
worship, their great object is to inculcate that 
there is but one person to whom it is due. " I 
am the Lord thy God, that brought thee up out of 
the land of Egypt. Thou shalt worship no other 
God, for the Lord whose name is jealous, is a 
jealous God. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God 
is one Lord/ 3 The worship instituted on Mount 
Sinai was, like that of the patriarchs, the worship 
of one God. It is not addressed to a Trinity ; 
contains no recognition of a Trinity; but effec- 
tually and absolutely excludes that, and every 
other notion of a divine plurality. 

Judaism was Unitarian in its administration. 
The laws of Moses were not designed, like 
Christianity, to work their way among other 
nations, and become universal. Their design 
was, to preserve in Judea a certain degree of 
religious knowledge till the Messiah came. 
For this, the laws were aided by inspired men, 
raised up from time to time to restore and 
preserve their purity. Till within three hundred 
years, perhaps less, before Christ, there was a 



98 



ON UNITARI AN1SM, 



succession of prophets. The doctrines incul- 
cated by these men are not unimportant in the 
present controversy. They were the guardians 
and expounders of the law of Moses. If that law 
was erroneously supposed to teach the proper 
unity of God, they would have exposed the error. 
If the Trinity was there obscurely taught, and had 
been overlooked, they would have brought it to 
light : if the Jews, in Moses' time, were not fit 
for the reception of that mystery, and were to be 
gradually prepared for it, they would have made 
the revelation. Have they exposed such an 
error ? Have they offered such an interpre- 
tation ? Have they unfolded such a discovery ? 
Nothing like it. Elijah by a miracle rescued 
the people from the worship of Baal ; and they 
exclaimed, " The Lord, he is God V* Was this 
miracle wrought to turn them from idolatry, one 
fatal error, to Unitarianism, another fatal error? 
And was a prophet satisfied with such a triumph? 
The Psalmist interprets providential judgments 
to be for this purpose : "That men may know 
that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the 
Most High over all the earth/' Ps. lxxxiii. 18. 
Isaiah introduces the Deity asserting, " I am 
Jehovah, that is my name, and my glory will I 
not give to another." Isaiah xlii. 8. Zecha- 
riah, in the text, predicts the universal prevalence 
of this doctrine, The Lord, whose name is one, 
shall be king in all the earth. 



ON UN ITARIANISM. 



99 



Take Judaism in its origin, text or commen- 
tary; the patriarch with whom it commenced ; 
the code in which it was embodied ; the prophets 
by whom it was administered ; and it is clear that 
a plurality of divine persons was no part of it, was 
excluded from it, was inconsistent with it, and 
could only be established on its destruction. 

The results of this system appear in the Jews, 
who conceive the reception of the doctrine of 
the Trinity to be equivalent to denying those of 
Moses. It is remarkable that the other descen- 
dants of Abraham, through Ishmael, are also 
adherents of this truth. 

In vain is it argued that the unity designed 
was onlv one of nature or essence, and not of 
person, and that it was opposed to idolatrous 
Polytheism. The Jews were not metaphy- 
sicians : they made not, nor could comprehend 
so subtle a distinction, nor do the terms admit 
it* Their being then opposed to one error, does 
not make them now less decisive against another 
error. Such strong assertions of proper unity, 
with the constant use of singular pronouns, in 
declarations made in the name of God, and 
worship addressed to him, would effectually 
stamp any book but the Bible with the name of 
Unitarian, in the judgment of the objectors. 

Whatever be the doctrine of Christianity, the 
proper Unity of God is essential to Judaism, It is 

a 2 



100 



ON UNITAR1 ANISM. 



interwoven in the various parts of that wondrous 
fabric ; it is the very life and spirit of that body. 
This is enough to decide the question. That 
which is once true of God, in himself, must be 
always true, He is immutable. He must 
always have been with or without the supposed 
co-equal partners of his throne. It is not a 
subject on which increased information might 
be pleaded. We might have seen but one sun, 
though three existed. There might be three 
human persons, of whom one was first made 
known to us, and the two others subsequently: 
these are not parallel cases. The supposition is 
not admissible that the Unity of God was first 
revealed, and .the Trinity afterwards, for the 
revelation of that unity is exclusive. Not only 
was one Divine Being revealed, but it was 
revealed that there was but one. To reveal the 
Deity of the Father might perhaps be thought 
not to exclude the Godhead of the Son and 
Holy Spirit : but it was revealed that the Father 
was God alone, the only and exclusive God. 
Hence such further communication would be, 
not addition but contradiction ; what was made 
known before, would be not increased but 
falsified. Here, then, might we rest our faith; 
but this is not the whole of the evidence. 
Christianity pleads as strongly as Judaism; and 
we might say of this truth, as the writer to the 



ON UNITARI ANISM. 



101 



Hebrews of the word and oath of God, " That 
by two immutable things, wherein it was im- 
possible for God to lie, we might have strong" 
confirmation. 

Christianity adopts this tenet of Judaism, 
1. Impliedly, by the absence of controversy 
between Christ, the apostles, or any of the first 
Christians, with the Jews, on the object of 
worship. Such controversy must have arisen 
had they taught the doctrine of the Trinity. 
There is no vestige of it ; and this silence pleads 
eloquently, forcibly, resistlessly, on behalf of 
their common faith in the Divine Unity. 

2. By assertions of the identity of the object 
of worship : not only by worshipping together, 
which our opponents feel very well, and shew 
very clearly, would not have been the case, had 
the one been Trinitarian and the other Unitarian ; 
but also by explicit declaration. The prayers of 
the apostles were addressed to cc The God of 
Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob/' Paul ad- 
mitted a difference in the manner, but not in 
the object of worship. " After the way which 
they call heresy, so worship I the God of my 
fathers/' Acts xxiv. 14. Jesus himself bore 
witness to the correctness of the Jews, as to this 
point, in his conversation with the woman of 
Samaria : " Ye worship ye know not what ; but 
we know what we worship : for salvation is of 
the Jews/' John iv. 22. 



102 



ON UNITARIAN ISM. 



3. By similar assertions of the Divine Unity, 
" Thou believest that there is one God ; thou 
doest well." James ii. 19. " God is one/' 
Gal. iii. 20. 

4. By similar appropriation of worship. " When 
ye pray, say, our Father." Luke xi. 2. " I thank 
God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 
vii. 2,5. " I bow my knees unto the Father of 
our Lord Jesus Christ." Ephes. iii. 14. " The 
blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings 
and Lord of lords, to whom be honour and power 
everlasting." 1 Tim. vi. lo, 16. 

5. The silence of the apostles in their addresses 
to Jews proves that they and their hearers agreed 
as to the object of worship, and only differed as 
to whether the one God, whom they equally 
acknowledged, had sent Jesus of Nazareth to be 
the Saviour of men : so when they addressed 
Pagans, we find them not asserting a Trinity* 
and an incarnate God, which to Poly theists might 
have been more acceptable than the Jewish 
doctrine, but, following the custom of the pro- 
phets, when reclaiming the apostate Israelites, 
and shewing the vanity of idols, and the proofs 
from nature of the existence and attributes of 
One Great Creator ; we have a striking instance 
of this in the speech of Paul to the Athenians. 

Christianity takes from Judaism not merely 
the truth of this doctrine, but its importance 
also ; and as we have already seen, associates it 



ON UNITARI ANISM. 



103 



with whatever is most interesting in religion or 
morality. With Christ, as with Moses, it is 
" the first of all the commandments with 
Christ, as with Moses, it is the foundation of 
devotion to God and benevolence to man. With 
the advance of the divine communications its 
rank is not degraded. No brighter or nobler 
truth appears to obscure its lustre. We see it 
alike pre-eminent in the full discoveries of 
Christianity and the partial revelations of Ju- 
daism ; in the one, the sun that rules the day, 
and in the other, the moon that rules the night. 

A powerful argument against Trinitarianism 
is derived from what is preserved of apostolic 
preaching: but fully to state and enforce this 
would require the quotation of all the sermons 
recorded in the Acts. To all, Dr. Toulmin's 
excellent remarks on the first discourse of Peter 
are applicable. " Here is nothing but the plain 
Unitarian doctrine. Not a word came from the 
lips of Peter concerning the depravity of human 
nature, the deity and atonement of Christ, and 
justification by the imputation of his righte- 
ousness. Not a word like that of the Moravians, 
who preached to the Greenlanders concerning 
4 the Creator taking upon him human nature, 
and dying for our sins/ Peter doth not in this 
manner preach Christ, and yet his preaching 
was effectual to the conversion of multitudes. 
He insists upon a few plain facts only, illus- 



104 



ON UNITARIANISM. 



trative of the unity and supremacy of God the 
Father, the humanity and divine mission of 
Jesus of Nazareth ; such facts as form the creed 
of the Unitarian. The prominent features of 
this discourse are the fundamental articles of the 
Unitarian Creed/' 

Certain general characteristics of Christianity 
are given in Scripture to which Unitarianism 
and Trinitarianism may be brought as tests. 
1. It was, as a system of grace and mercy, 
superior to Judaism. " The law came by 
Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus 
Christ." With this, Unitarianism evidently cor- 
responds, which makes one the perfection of the 
other. If Trinitarianism be the gospel, it was 
inferior to Judaism ; for Trinitarianism teaches 
that God is partial; Judaism, that " his tender 
mercies are over all his works:" Trinitarianism, 
that guilt is imputed even so as to subject justly 
the posterity of Adam, to the millionth gene- 
ration, to damnation for his offence; Judaism, 
that " the son shall not bear the iniquity of the 
father:" Trinitarianism, that for every sin full 
satisfaction must be made to divine justice ; 
Judaism, that " like as a father pitieth his 
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear 
him, for he knoweth our frame, and remembereth 
that we are dust:" Trinitarianism, that his 
vengeance is eternal ; Judaism, that judgment 
is " his strange work ;" and that " his mercy 



ON UNITARIAN ISM. 



105 



endureth for ever/' Can we say with propriety 
of any, passing from one of these religions to 
the other, " "Ye have not received the spirit of 
bondage, again to fear, but ye have received the 
spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, 
Father" ? 2. Christianity was eminently simple, 
intelligible and reasonable.- " He that hath ears 
to hear, let him hear. Yea, and why even of your- 
selves, j udge ye not that which is right ? I speak 
as unto wise men, judge ye what I say." Here 
let our opponents decide. They have decided. 
Are they not continually accusing us of levelling 
every thing to our own comprehension ; of 
spoiling Christianity of its mysteries ; of not 
prostrating the understanding ; of demanding 
explanation where it cannot be given ; of being 
only rational believers? Could such appeals as 
those quoted, have been ever made by Christ 
and the apostles, had they taught the paradoxes 
of modern Orthodoxy? 3. Christianity was 
gospel or glad tidings. This was description, 
before it became a proper name. Does the 
Trinitarian or Calvinistic preacher obey the 
command of Christ to " preach glad tidings to 
every creature" ? Will it make men glad to tell 
them they are born in sin, so as to be wholly 
depraved ; condemned for Adam's guilt ; damned 
without repentance, and incapable of repenting 
without supernatural interference ; many, if not 
most of them, abandoned without remedy to 



106 



ON UNITARIANISM. 



endless misery? The Saviour was incapable 
of this barbarous and insulting irony. It is as 
unlikely that such a system should be the gospel, 
as that he should sport with the miseries of 
man. 

Not only is the gospel characterized, but the 
leading features of its great corruption are de- 
lineated. We have shewn how closely these 
apply to modern orthodoxy. Mystery, alliance 
with the State, spiritual domination, multiplying 
the objects of worship, — all agree with the terms 
in which an Unitarian would speak of that 
system. But to the Trinitarian, Unitarianism is 
the grossest apostacy from the gospel which has 
yet taken place. To his mind it is more ap- 
palling than Popery itself. And this would 
have required a description exactly opposite : 
that which delineates the gospel would be 
transferred to the corruption, and the prophetic 
picture of the corruption would become the 
correct likeness of the truth. 

If proofs like these be insufficient ; if this 
weight of authority and variety of evidence, is 
to be balanced by a few figurative passages, or 
even by a few texts of difficult explication; 
where are we to find conviction, or where is the 
doctrine that can be shewn to be scriptural ? 
What mode of proof can be employed, which 
does not support Unitarianism ? It has legi- 
timate inference, direct implication, positive 



ON UNITARIANISM. 



10? 



assertion. What source of evidence can be 
discovered, from which it is not amply sup- 
plied ? It is traced in nature, runs through the 
Old Testament, blazes forth in the New, and is 
confirmed by the early history of the Christian 
Church. What is the authority that it wants? 
It was believed by Abraham, established by 
Moses, enforced jby the prophets, adopted by 
Christ, preached by the apostles, and sanctioned 
repeatedly by the voice of God himself. It 
agrees with the original descriptions of the gospel, 
and is irreconcileable with the prophetic deline- 
ation of its corruptions. If this fail to command 
credence, I will not say, " neither would they 
believe though one rose from the dead," for 
mightier miracles than that have been wrought 
for its proof; and it has been proclaimed by a 
more awful voice, the voice, not of reanimated 
dust, but of the ever-living God of heaven ! 

That this great truth was perverted and ob- 
scured, is, if we consider all the circumstances, 
productive of fresh corroborations of its identity 
with genuine Christianity. According to the 
prediction of Paul, the revelation of the man of 
sin, the full development and maturity of the 
antichristian apostacy, was to take place in con- 
nexion with some change in the Roman Empire. 
Such at least was the interpretation assigned by 
the general voice of antiquity ; nor has a more 
consistent one been given by moderns, to the 



108 



ON UNITARI ANISM. 



expression, " He that now letteth, will let, until 
he be taken out of the way." Under Constan- 
tine, who embraced nominal Christianity, and 
removed the seat of government to the East, or- 
thodoxy attained its portentous growth. Unless 
this was the fulfilment of the prophecy, it never 
has been, and now never can be accomplished. 

Certain indications of danger and apostacy 
were noticed by the apostles in the primitive 
church. They were such as might lead from 
Unitarianism towards Trinitarianism ; but could 
not possibly conduct in the opposite direction. 
They were, in fact, the causes whose results we 
see in ecclesiastical history. The principal of 
these deserve mention. 1. Temporizing with 
that mythology, in the belief of which the Gen- 
tile converts had been educated. " Flee from 
idolatry-— the cup of blessing which we bless, 
is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? 
The bread which we break, is it not the com- 
munion of the body of Christ? Ye cannot 
drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of 
demons; (the deities of Heathenism;) ye cannot 
be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the 
table of demons. " To partake of the sacrificial 
feasts of the popular gods; to confound with 
these feasts, as to its nature and design, the eu- 
charistic commemoration of Jesus; to transform 
his supper into a sacrifice, and him into a god ; 
and to elevate him from a god in the Pagan, to 



ON UNITARIANISM. 



109 



God, in the Christian sense of the term ; these 
are gradations of a progress in error, which is 
very conceivable and probable in itself, and 
which, by combining Scripture with history, 
may be discerned with tolerable distinctness. 
The Gentiles would with difficulty divest them- 
selves of the notion of subordinate deities. 
They had been accustomed to gods of various 
powers and provinces; who were corporeal and 
of human shape ; and whom they honoured by 
feasts on sacrificed animals in their temples. 
How natural to identify with such ceremonies 
the Lord's Supper, and to place in such a rank 
the Founder of their new religion ! He who 
healed the lame and blind, chained the winds 
and waves, raised the dead, and himself ascended 
to heaven, would, in their native phraseology, 
be of course a god. When Paul and Barnabas 
wrought a miracle at Lystra, the people said, 
" The gods are come down to us in the likeness 
of men." They would have formed a similar 
opinion of Christ, had they seen or heard of 
him ; and where apostolic authority did not 
reach, or as soon as the first race of believers 
was dead, it would be difficult to oppose the 
notion. This tendency must have operated 
through the whole body of Gentile converts ; 
and to them the belief in the divinity of Christ 
was for some time peculiar 

2. False shame, at obeying a Teacher who 



110 



ON UNITARIAN ISM. 



lived in mean circumstances, and died the death 
of a slave and a malefactor. Feelings of con- 
tempt and abhorrence were associated with the 
cross, and it became a fertile subject of reproach 
and ridicule. Paul rose superior to these taunts. 
He resolved " to know nothing but Jesus Christ, 
and him crucified/' and not to " glory, save in 
the cross but the energy and frequency with 
which these feelings are displayed, prove that 
he foresaw the danger of some apostacy, in faith 
or practice, from the misplaced shame of many. 
And accordingly, one of the first uses of the 
divinity of Christ was, to get rid of the debasing 
circumstances of his sufferings ; to prove that 
he did not really die, but that a phantom was 
crucified in his stead ; and thus to throw a 
mystic veil over the obnoxious part of Chris- 
tianity. 

3. The love of mystery and of apparent great- 
ness. The beautiful simplicity of the gospel 
was not likely to charm either the philosophers 
or the vulgar. The one class would desire some- 
thing more intricate ; and the other, something 
more marvellous. " The Jews require a sign, 
and the Greeks seek after wisdom The doc- 
trines of the Trinity, Incarnation, &c, even in 
their first, imperfect forms, had so much of the 
intricate and the marvellous, as strongly to re- 
commend them to those whose appetites were 
craving for such food. They are well adapted 



ON UNITARIANISM. 1H 

to minister to the gratification both of those 
who are, and of those who are not, addicted to 
abstruse speculation. The former they provide 
with a thousand metaphysical questions for the 
exercise of their subtile wits ; and by the ap- 
peals, for which they furnish materials, to the 
passions of the latter, they nourish that enthu- 
siasm which is too often substituted for " pure 
and undefiled religion." 

4. A corrupt philosophy. " Beware lest any 
man spoil you through philosophy and vain 
deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudi- 
ments of the world, and not after Christ/' The 
speculations of the Gnostics were very soon 
mingled with divine truth. At a subsequent 
period, the rapid advance of Trinitarian opinions 
was much owing to the accession of the Platonic 
philosophers, who had some obscure reveries 
about the nature of the Deity, to which they 
were determined to find something correspon- 
dent in Christianity ; or which its advocates 
found there, in order to conciliate them. 

For whatever opinions, bearing a resemblance 
to modern orthodoxy, are to be found in the 
early periods of history, we can therefore readily 
account, from the operation of causes whose 
existence rests, not upon inference or conjec- 
ture, but apostolic testimony. Scripture certifies 
their reality, and pronounces their condemnation. 
They furnish the only satisfactory clue to the 



112 



ON UNI T A RI AN ISM. 



state of the Church during the first three cen- 
turies ; and which, to a Trinitarian, must be 
wholly unaccountable. They coincide with, 
and explain facts, which in their turn, justify 
the apprehensions of the sacred writers ; appre- 
hensions exceedingly misplaced, if Unitarianism 
was a corruption and a heresy. 

It is admitted by Mosheim, and similar writers, 
that there were, in the first century, those who 
denied the miraculous birth of Christ, and held 
that he became superior to other men at his 
baptism, when the powers necessary for the 
purposes of his mission were bestowed ; and 
that they were not a distinct body till the second 
century. This fact is important. If not a dis- 
tinct body from other Christians, they must have 
been the great body of Christians ; for if the 
divinity of Christ was the original doctrine, and 
the worship of Christ the original practice, those 
who denied the one and withheld the other, 
could not have remained in fellowship with 
others. They must have been promptly ex- 
pelled, as they invariably have been, since Tri- 
nitarianism gained the ascendancy. That they, 
continued so long in the Church is alone a 
demonstration of their superiority in point of 
numbers ; of the antiquity of their faith, and 
the novelty of the tenets to which it was op- 
posed. Justin Martyr, in the second century, 
advances his notion of the superhumanity of 



ON UNITARIANISM. 



113 



Christ, with the tone and manner of an inno- 
vator. Tertullian describes the greater part of 
believers in his time, as dreading the doctrine of 
the Trinity, and adhering strictly to the sole 
monarchy of God. Origen speaks of the mul- 
titude of Christians as not knowing the mystery 
of the Logos. Priestley observes, " So popular 
was Unitarianism in this age (the third century), 
that, according to Epiphanius, when the Uni- 
tarians met with any of the plainer Christians, 
they would say, 6 Well, friend, what doctrine shall 
we hold, shall we acknowledge one God, or 
three?'" The fierce disputes of the fourth cen- 
tury, when Athanasius and Arius divided the 
Christian world, were caused, not by the intro- 
duction of Arianism, as a novelty, but by a 
strong public expression of Trinitarian senti- 
ments, which even yet had not arrived at that 
systematic perfection which they finally attained. 
Can there be a doubt, then, who were the inno- 
vators, or which way the stream was flowing? 
Every thing indicates a progression, of which 
the starting point was simple Unitarianism, and 
the final reach, the Athanasian Trinitarian ism of 
the creed. As we travel up the pages of history, 
we must successively deposit with different ages, 
their inventions, till the Trinitarian system va- 
nishes altogether. We cannot find the complete 
system even in the writings of .Athanasius, nor 
his in Tertullian and Origen, nor theirs in Justin 

i 



114 



ON UNITARIANISM. 



Martyr. Error retires as it advanced. If we 
are not yet surrounded with the blaze of day, 
still the darkness is breaking, the shadows of 
night are flitting away, and the horizon begins 
to be illumined. We trace in the past the dim 
twilight that preceded the long* night of ignorance 
and error, when the fair forms of truth and sim- 
plicity were lost, and all was gloomy incertitude, 
or shapeless horror ; and if, in our age, the state 
of religious knowledge again resemble the twi- 
Jight, we rejoice that the night is past, and it 
harbingers not now the blackness of darkness 
but the dawn of day, the rising of the sun, the 
dispersion of every baleful mist, the gladdening 
song of animated nature, the revived beauties of 
earth, and the unveiled glories of the serene and 
majestic heavens. 

We commonly speak of Unitarianism as a 
subdivision of Christianity, and call ourselves 
Unitarian Christians. We might also speak of 
Christianity as a species of Unitarianism, and 
call ourselves Christian Unitarians. The contest 
has been tried on other principles than those of 
the gospel ; and it may not be amiss just to 
notice five different classes of Unitarians, who 
are out of the pale of Christianity. 

i. The wisest and best philosophers of Greece 
and Rome rose above the superstition of their 
age and country, and held sublime ideas of the 
Deity. Thus God was defined as the livings 



ON UN1TARI ANISM. 



115 



eternal, best Being. He was spoken of as the 
Father o f gods and men, King of the gods, most 
high, most great, ?nost excellent. There are many 
popular gods, said Antisthenes, but one natural 
one. Others affirm that God, being really one, 
hath many names, according to the several affec- 
tions he discovers, and operations he exerts. The 
doctrine of Socrates was — God is the universal 
intellect. God is one ; perfect in himself, giving 
the being, and the well-being of every creature* 
These men were lights shining in dark places. 
Bigotry may sometimes have passed on them a 
hasty and contemptuous censure, but charity, 
say rather justice, should make us regard them 
with esteem, and adopt towards them the senti- 
ments of that liberal and excellent man, (of 
whom I have had more than one occasion to 
express my admiration,) William Penn, in his 
" Fruits of a Father's Love." " That blessed 
principle, the eternal word, I begun with to 
you, and which is that light, spirit, grace and 
truth, I have exhorted you to, in all its holy 
appearances and manifestations in yourselves, 
by which all things were at first made, and men 
enlightened to salvation, is Pythagoras's great 
light and salt of ages ; Anaxagoras's divine 
mind ; Socrates's good spirit ; Timaeus's unbe- 
gotten principle and author of all light; Hieron's 
God in man ; Plato's eternal, ineffable and per- 
fectprinciple of truth ; Zeno's maker and Father 

I 2 



116 



ON UNIT ARIA N ISM. 



of all ; and Plotin's root of the soul. These 
were some of those virtuous Gentiles, com- 
mended by the apostle, Romans ii. 13 — 15; 
that though they had not the law given to them, 
as the Jews had, with those instrumental helps 
and advantages, yet doing by nature the things 
contained in the law, they became a law unto 
themselves. ? 

ii. The Jews have been steady Unitarians in 
all their calamities. Numbers of them became 
Christians before the doctrine of the Trinity 
was broached ; but since that, conversion has 
been at an end. Till this barrier be thrown 
down, and Christianity purified, they remain 
witnesses against its professed advocates, but 
real corrupters. 

in. The disciples of Mahomet. Although his 
pretensions to inspiration, his employment of 
the sword for conversion, and the earthly nature 
of his paradise, deserve strong reprobation ; yet 
when we consider the state of gross superstition 
into which the Christians of the East were 
sunk, and the native idolatry of the Arabians, it 
must be allowed that he accomplished a great 
reformation: he introduced comparative purity of 
faith and worship ; and probably, after all, in 
estimating his character, which was compounded 
of enthusiasm and imposture, there was more of 
the former than has been commonly assigned. 
His doctrine, in his own words, is, "Say, God 



ON UNITARIANISM. 



117 



is one God ; the eternal God : he begetteth not, 
neither is he begotten ; and there is not any one 
like unto him." Gibbon observes : " The Koran 
is a glorious testimony to the Unity of God; 
The prophet of Mecca rejected the worship of 
idols and men, of stars and planets, on the 
rational principle that whatever rises must set ; 
that whatever is born must die ; that whatever 
is corruptible must decay and perish. In the 
Author of the universe, his rational enthusiasm 
confessed and adored an infinite and eternal 
Being, without form or place, without issue or 
similitude, present to our most secret thoughts, 
existing by the necessity of his own nature, 
and deriving from himself all moral and intel- 
lectual perfection." Such notions of God, from 
whatever source derived, must have been a 
blessing to those who received them in exchange 
for absurdity, idolatry and degradation. 

iv. While too many unbelievers of modern 
times stand convicted of the grossest disingenu- 
ousness in their mode of reasoning, and of great 
depravity of character, there are others who seem 
to have been honest, though mistaking, inquirers, 
who confounded Christianity with its abuses, 
which, in a Catholic country, is not surprising, 
and opposed them both, when they should have 
discriminated. Many of them have been highly 
useful in bringing back Christians to a purer 
faith, and to juster notions of the rights of con- 



118 



ON UNITARIANISM. 



science. The resurrection of Christ is the rock 
of our immortal hopes ; but the conviction 
cannot, and ought not, to be suppressed, that 
some creeds, called Christian, are not to be 
compared with the religion of nature, as stated 
by Lord Herbert in these five articles : 

1. That there is one supreme God, God of 
gods, or God and Father of all things. 

2. That all worship and adoration ought to 
terminate in this one God. 

3. That the love and pursuit of truth and 
virtue is the chief and only essential part of this 
acceptable, rewardable worship of the one true 
God. 

4. That deep contrition and sorrow for our 
sins and aberrations from truth and virtue, with 
a sincere repentance and reformation after such 
sins committed, is the true propitiation for sin, 
or means of reconciling sinners to God. And, 

5. That God, as the wise and righteous Judge 
and Governor of the world, will certainly reward 
virtue and punish vice, both here and hereafter. 

v. It is probable that many philosophers of 
China and India have taught a pure theism, and 
deserve a place among the honourable opponents 
of idolatry and vice. We know that there is, 
at the present moment, an intelligent and grow- 
ing sect of unchristian Unitarians, in Bengal, 
at the head of which is Rammohun Roy, a 
Brah mun of high character and great celebrity. 



ON UNITARIAN ISM, 



119 



Many of you, probably, have read the interesting 
account of his doctrine in Mr. Belsham's preface 
to the letter of W. Roberts, concerning the 
native Unitarian Christian Church at Madras. 
He asserts the Unity of the Supreme Being. 
" God is indeed One, and there is no second. 
There is none but the Supreme Being possessed 
of universal knowledge. God is the sole object 
of worship. Adore God alone. Know God 
alone. To God we should approach : of him 
we should hear ; of him we should think ; and 
to him we should attempt to approximate." Who 
of us will not sav, with the editor of the tract 
referred to, that this extraordinary man is " not 
far from the kingdom of God" ? Who would 
not rejoice in the triumph of his purer faith over 
the delusions of his countrymen? (*) 

Do not these facts prove, either that the proper 
unity of God is the plain dictate of right reason, 
preached by the heavens and the earth, where 
man will hear their voice ; or that it is a frag- 
ment of some original revelation, passed down 
by tradition to all ages and countries, and se- 
lected/ by the wise and good from the mass of 
accompanying absurdity ? Either supposition 
implies its truth and importance. It is grati- 
fying to see it generally in connexion with su- 
perior knowledge and virtue : to see it either a 
resource in general ignorance and depravity, or 
a means for bettering the state of mankind: 



120 



ON UNITARIAN ISM. 



either clung to as the last plank in the shipwreck 
of truth and freedom, or held aloft, the standard 
of reviving goodness, and signal of reformation. 

Something like antiquity and universality are 
occasionally claimed by Trinitarians, while they 
affect to speak of Unitarianism as the reverie of 
a few moderns. Kven confining our views to 
Christian history, we have sufficiently shewn 
the fallacy of this representation. I will quote 
the remarks of Mr. Perry (Letters to Kinghorn) 
on its comparatively later revival. Unitarianism 
" appears modern only when referred to an age 
of spiritual domination and persecution. Ca- 
tholics wish to refer Protestantism to a recent 
and impure origin in the reign of Henry VIII. 
Trinitarians confine their views of Unitarianism 
to this side of that deluge of barbarism and su- 
perstition, which overwhelmed the moral world 
at the destruction of the Roman Empire, and 
extended to the era of the Reformation ; and 
from which some sects arose sooner than others. 
The tops of rugged rocks and barren mountains 
first appeared ; but the extensive plains and 
fertile valleys, destined for the abode of man, 
rose last to view. The gloomy raven was the 
first to quit the ark, and was not long in finding 
a resting place ; but the peaceful dove hovered 
over the scene of desolation, returned and lin- 
gered, till it brought the olive branch to give the 
assurance of safety to mankind. The sun itself 



ON UNITARIANISM. 



121 



could not, at first, penetrate the misty atmos- 
phere, purify the air, and restore the unclouded 
face of the heavens." 

The chief scene of reviving Unitarianism, at 
the time of the Reformation, was in Poland. 
There was a constellation of illustrious cha- 
racters, which shed around a blaze of religious 
light. Their writings yet remain, the rich repo- 
sitory of what is most valuable in Biblical 
knowledge and criticism. Of these the most 
conspicuous was Socinus. We lament the in- 
consistency which led him some steps in the 
road of persecution ; but we must do justice to 
his high worth. " He died," says Robinson, " in 
perfect peace, reflecting on his sufferings with 
pleasure, and expressing his hopes that his 
labours would be rewarded by the just Judge 
at the last day." The epitaph inscribed on his 
tomb shews what his friends thought of his 
doctrine. It alludes to Popery, under the simi- 
litude of a building. Luther took off the roof 
of Babylon; Calvin threw down the walls; but 
Socinus dug up the foundations. A furious per- 
secution afterwards broke up the Unitarian 
Churches in Poland ; but large bodies remain 
to this day in Transylvania. Indeed, at first 
they were hunted to death alike by Catholics 
and Protestants ; witness the barbarous murder 
of Servetus, by the instigation of Calvin. Si- 



122 



ON UNITAKI ANISM. 



milar scenes took place in this country. That 
amiable young prince, Edward VI., was with 
great difficulty prevailed on by Cranmer to sign 
the death warrant of Joan Bocher, a pious, in- 
telligent and distinguished female, for denying 
the Trinity. He did it w T ith tears in his eyes, 
and with the solemn appeal, " My Lord Arch- 
bishop, as in this case I resign myself to your 
judgment, you must be answerable to God for 
it." The history of Unitarian martyrs would 
be an interesting subject. Many have suffered 
in this country, under laws which no longer 
exist, but some of which have only recently 
been torn from the statute book which they dis- 
graced. Heavily prest the yoke of persecution 
on the necks of our forefathers, and its burden 
crushed them to the earth. They fell beneath 
its overwhelming weight ; and it formed their 
only monument. Never yet have they received 
that well-deserved tribute of posthumous ap- 
plause, which has been the portion of so many 
others, whose names a recording finger has inde- 
libly traced on the pillar of immortality. They 
have passed away without their fame, for our 
adversaries have told our tale, and by idolatrous 
Christians has been written the history of Chris- 
tianity. But their names and worth are pre- 
served in those imperishable records treasured 
in the courts of heaven, were traced by the 



ON UNITARI ANISM. 



123 



hand of Omniscience, and shall one day be 
unfolded to an admiring world : then shall they 
shine as the stars, for ever and ever." ( m ) 
The revived progress of Unitarianism claims 
affinity with the original diffusion of the gospel, 
as it has advanced in opposition to power, and 
in defiance of persecution ; and of late years, 
since it has been fairly and plainly preached, 
has spread with great rapidity amongst the poor. 
So far as its present state and prospects belong 
to the general design of this Course, they will 
be considered in the next Lecture. The text is 
a prediction of its final, universal prevalence, 
which must be realized. Its progress is first to 
destroy error and quell dissension in the Church ; 
and then to flow around the globe, bearing to 
every land the unity and love of God, and uni- 
versal brotherhood of man. Then " shall the 
Lord be King over all the earth ; in that day 
shall there be One Lord, and his name, One f 
and every voice shall echo the song, till it 
resound from shore to shore, of " Glory to God 
in the highest, and on earth peace; good will 
towards men." 

But between us and that happy period there 
is yet a long interval of arduous conflict. By 
strict consistency to rebut the shafts of ca- 
lumny; by mild benevolence to conciliate affec- 
tion, without swerving from the integrity that 
disdains the slightest sacrifice of truth ; with 



124 



ON UNITARIANISM. 



unwearied patience to encounter opposition^ 
ignorance and prejudice ; and by firm, united, 
zealous exertion, to restore the purity of Chris- 
tian truth on the ruins of antichristian error: 
these are the high duties of its advocates : these 
are the toilsome, but honourable task to which 
they are called by God and Providence. Uniting 
in this noble work, you become the coadjutors 
of the excellent of the earth, who in any age 
have interposed, at their own peril, to arrest 
human evils or multiply blessings ; who, like 
Aaron, have stood between the dead and the 
living to stay the plague ; who, as Abraham, 
have renounced all for God. You join the il- 
lustrious band of reformers, kindred spirits in 
all climes and generations, from him the best 
and greatest, who, " for the joy set before him, 
endured the cross, despising the shame/'' down 
to your own Priestleys and Lindseys, who 
heard his animating voice, " Be thou faithful 
unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life ; ' 
and w T ho calls you, with them, on those plains 
of holy warfare, to sustain the cause of truth, 
righteousness and benevolence, and reap the 
deathless laurels of celestial glory. 



( 125 ) 



LECTURE V. 

ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, AND THE INFLUENCE 
OF RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS ON SOCIETY. 

Daxiel xii. 4, 

Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall 

be increased. 

In the preceding Lectures we have attempted 
to exhibit that great apostacy in the Church, 
designated by the term Antichrist, in its nature 
and extent, as consisting in unscriptural faith 
and worship, superstitious practices and spiritual 
tyranny, and affecting, in various degrees, not 
only the Church of Rome and the Eastern 
Church, but also the different Protestant sects, 
and in this country both the Establishment and 
Dissenters. To this has been opposed what 
I consider the unadulterated gospel, sacred and 
eternal truth, approved by reason and declared 
in Scripture, a system fostered by inquiry, almost 
identified with religious liberty, and eminently 
favourable to piety, benevolence and happiness, 
I have now to shew the advance which this 
system has made, and the means by which that 



126 ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 

progress has been effected, and will be conti- 
nued till Unitarianism become again co-extensive 
with Christianity; which occupies the present 
Lecture, and prepares us for contemplating 
afterwards, the strength of regenerated Christi- 
anity, to restrain and ultimately abolish that 
greatest of evils, war ; and thus conduct mankind 
towards perfection. For this purpose, the terms 
of the subject of this Lecture were selected. 
The influence of religious systems on society, is 
that which makes their discussion of importance ; 
creeds, and their accompaniments, are commonly 
the intrenchments which error throws up for her 
defence ; and controversy is the chief agency by 
which those barriers are demolished; truth 
elicited and diffused ; and, consequently, the 
church purified and the world improved. These 
topics will be kept in view, and involved in 
most of the remarks I shall make this evening, 
though without aiming, for reasons before as- 
signed, at giving them either a distinct or a 
complete discussion. 

He must be a very careless reader of either 
ancient or modern history, who does not at once 
see that religion has, in all times and countries, 
operated with great force on the condition of 
man. Not only does it affect the moral character, 
by supposing, or creating a standard of duty, 
and exciting fears of punishment, or hopes of 
recompence in futurity ; but it is also one of the 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 127 

first among the causes by which nations have 
risen to refinement, knowledge and power, or 
been retained in, or plunged into ignorance and 
barbarism; which has steeled them for the 
atrocities of war, or disposed them for the milder 
arts and joys of peace ; which has coiled around 
them the serpent folds of the chain of vassalage, 
or beamed the heavenly light of liberty ; and 
been, according to the spirit of its institutions, 
the glory or the ruin of mightiest empires. 

There are four classes of men, aiming at some 
sort of sway over others, who have always, by 
their conduct, given evidence of their vivid 
perception of the vast influence of religion on 
society, and who have eagerly grasped it as a 
machine to effect their purposes. 

1. Legislators have invoked its aid to sanction 
their institutions when in infancy, to second 
them in operation, and make up by public 
veneration for their weakness when declining 
by antiquity. The learned and acute, though 
often paradoxical, author of the Divine Legation 
of Moses, has done much towards proving that 
Moses was the only lawgiver of all antiquity 
w T ho did not enforce his edicts by connecting 
with them some explicit reference to a future 
state of rewards and punishments. Generally 
they pretended to a divine revelation. The 
original laws of Egyptians, Athenians, Spartans, 
Romans, Chinese, Peruvians, Goths, Arabians, 



128 OX CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C, 

and many other nations, were all, according to 
their authors, inspired by some guardian god or 
gods. They pretended acquaintance with the 
gods : the fact was, they knew human nature. 

2. The poet aims at power, as wtll as the 
lawgiver, though of a different kind. He would 
controul the hearts of men ; reign in their ima- 
ginations ; command their tears ; win their 
smiles ; and enjoy a transient immortality in 
their memory and praises. The. earliest poetry 
was that of devotion. Harps were first strung 
in honour of gods ; and even the drama itself, 
in Greece, was but a gorgeous sacrifice. Its 
revival was similar to its origin, and is traced to 
the mysteries which monks performed in Lent, 
calling the aid of decoration and exhibition to 
poetry describing the creation of the world, or 
crucifixion of the Redeemer. The great ma- 
jority of poets have employed religion in 
attempting to reach that empire over the 
feeling , of which they are so ambitious. 

3. Orators have usually had recourse to 
similar means for a similar purpose. The great 
pleaders of antiquity, whose names are identified 
with this art, frequently used religion to play on 
the passions of their auditors. We usually find 
it in those speeches which are recorded to have 
had the greatest e ect. The most sceptical 
have employed it for impression in their elo- 
quence. In later days we have had splendid 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 199 



declamations, and successful ones too, about the 
throne and the altar, from some who cared about 
the throne but for the sake of its trappings, and 
worshipped at no altars but those raised to their 
own interest or vanity. 

4. Impostors of various classes, pretended 
prophets, priests, pontiffs, conquerors, have done 
homage to the power of religion over society by 
appealing to it in the breasts of the multitudes 
they have cajoled, or plundered, or trampled 
under foot. Infidelity has sometimes lurked in 
lawn, and chuckled at its gains beneath the 
triple crown. In many instances, besides that 
of Mahomet, has fanaticism sharpened the sword 
of conquest. So much art is not wasted in 
counterfeiting trifles. Such men would not 
have cared for the name of religion, had it not 
been a passport to power, wealth, or fame. 

The effects of religion, true or false, are chiefly 
produced by two means. It influences the 
mind by the belief of its creed, and the habits 
by its institutions and observances. Both are 
usually employed, although in very different 
proportions. The theology of ancient Egypt, of 
Hindostan, of Greece, and in a less degree 
Mahometanism, are more religions of ceremony 
than of faith: Christianity has more of faith 
than of ceremony, which indeed it employs but 
little, if at all. In Judaism they are combined, 
but ceremony seems to preponderate. Popery 

K 



ISO ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 

is a religion of ceremony compared with Pro- 
testantism. In general, we may observe that 
religions of ceremony prevail with the ignorant; 
those of faith with the intelligent: these combine 
with fixedness and slavery ; those with change, 
liberty and improvement. The philosophers, 
whose names raise Greece so high, had a religion 
of their own, of free speculation, which led 
them on to glorious truths and high excellence, 
while the mass of their countrymen seemed 
another race. The prayers, five times in a day, 
and frequent ceremonies of the Turks, have had 
no inconsiderable effect in keeping down their 
national character, and throwing them so far 
behind that Europe, whose proudest states they 
might have rivalled. Could the natives of 
Hindostan be, by some miracle, transformed into 
Christians, and the distinction of castes and all 
their other debasing institutions obliterated, 
where would be their feebleness, their subjection 
to foreigners, and all that now makes them a 
property and not a people ? 

The religion of ceremony tends to reduce man 
to a mere machine; a puppet, bowing before 
altars, fingering beads, walking in procession, 
and kneeling to images. The fire of intellect, 
being unfed, wastes and expires. The character 
becomes devoid of that consistency and elevation 
which can only result from understanding and 
believing great moral principles. Establishment, 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 131 

repose and antiquity, often make the ceremonial 
part of a system preponderate over the intel- 
lectual. The military faith of predestination 
was most conspicuous in Mahometan ism. while 
associated with energy ; and its ritual became 
elevated, as the character of its votaries sunk 
into feebleness. The affinity of the Mosaic 
Institutions to that class of religions which has 
the least favourable operation on human im- 
provement, appears, at first, inconsistent with 
their divine origin. The fact is explained by a 
reference to their design, which was not to 
bring the Jews to an advanced state of know- 
ledge, but to make them the keepers of the 
records of revelation, and the worship of the One 
God, till the coming of Christ. The ritual was 
a thorny fence around the pure religion of the 
patriarchs. By rendering the Jewish character 
nearly stationary, two great advantages were 
gained for mankind. Revelation was securely 
preserved at a period when the world was so 
debased that extension would have led to its 
total loss: and afterwards, when it was proffered 
to the nations, the inferiority of its guardians 
was a pledge of its divinity. 

There is another species of religion, which 
neither exercises the intellect upon important 
truth, nor governs life by prescribed ceremonies, 
but appeals to the imagination. It peoples 

k 2 



132 ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 



caves, woods, rivers, mountains, with tutelary 
deities, to whom it not only gives " a local 
habitation and a name/' but paints their forms 
and tunes their voices. This is not powerful in 
its influence upon character, and except in rare 
circumstances, speedily assimilates itself to the 
other classes, either rising into faith by the aid 
of philosophy, or degenerating into the external 
worship of material images. The mythology of 
antiquity was " a creed outworn/' long before 
Christianity swept it from the earth. The 
speculating few, if they did not disregard the 
whole as mere fable, considered gods as perso- 
nifications, and their histories as allegories; 
while the ignorant many adored, not the creations 
of the poet, with whom they had no fellowship 
of fancy, but of the sculptor, whose art furnished 
a visible and tangible deity to tenant their village 
temple. The researches of the wise, and the 
stupidity of the vulgar, alike dissolve the en- 
chantments of poetic imagination. There is 
also, generally, a locality about such superstitions 
which forbids their permanence after much 
intercourse with other countries. They are 
equally transitory, when superinduced upon a 
rational faith. The living animals of Egypt, and 
the monstrous images of India, though at first 
mystic emblems of real or supposed truths, soon 
usurped supreme worship. The invocation of 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 133 



saints entailed that of their images on both the 
Greek and Latin churches. It would not long 
survive their disuse. 

Religions which lay their foundation, where 
alone a solid foundation can be laid, in the 
understanding, are liable to be perverted into 
useless speculation. Thus while Christianity 
was burdened with rites, borrowed from Judaism 
or Paganism, till with the unthinking itbecame 
a mere round of unmeaning forms; its faith was 
frittered away by the schoolmen into a series 
of metaphysical subtleties. It would be vain to 
expect from the endless quibbles which have 
been occasioned by mysterious doctrines, the 
beneficial results upon the heart and life which 
arise from just reasoning upon plain and certain 
principles. 

Although relying principally upon the power 
of mind, Christianity at first employed that of 
habit with great success, not like other systems, 
for purposes of ceremony, but in aid of morality, 
by the discipline of its churches, whose mem- 
bers watched over, reproved, instructed and 
strengthened each other. And when this dis- 
cipline ceased, or was misdirected, its place was 
partially supplied by the influence gained over 
public opinion. 

The philosophical historian cannot tell the 
tale of eighteen centuries without assigning a 
conspicuous place to Christianity among the 



134 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 



operating causes upon the state, comforts and 
liberties of man. Without enlarging upon re- 
sults, which might fill volumes, let it suffice 
barely to mention, the general abolition of 
domestic slavery ; the elevation of the female 
character and condition, and the termination of 
polygamy ; greater purity of manners ; com- 
parative mildness in the conduct of warfare; 
the suppression of mam^ cruel practices, and the 
introduction of benevolent institutions; with 
the progress making towards the ultimate 
abolition of slavery:- — these and many other 
social blessings, of high moment, have been the 
silent gift of Christianity to society, a temporal 
boon to confirm the promise of eternal life. 

Another result of Christianity deserves more 
particular mention, its tendency to secure, ad- 
vance and perfect the intellectual and moral 
education of man. When not most grossly 
corrupted, it must produce reading and reflec- 
tion, and extend them among the lower classes 
of society. Hence, especially since the Refor- 
mation, and still more rapidly since the recent 
age of controversy, and gradual recurrence to its 
genuine spirit, the number of readers, and the 
quantity of general information, has been pro- 
digiously multiplied. Much of this is owing 
to the simple fact, that Christianity exists in 
a book, avowedly for individual interpretation, 
and not neutralized, as in Eastern superstitions, 




ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 135 



or in Popery, by traditions of equal authority, 
or privileged classes of authoritative interpreters. 
To make any order of men the depositaries 
and peculiar dispensers of truth, is saying, do 
not read, it is not necessary; do not think, it is 
done for you ; do not inquire, doubt, compare, 
discuss, decide : here are persons to whom all 
that is delegated — let there be only authority 
and submission ; the privileged wise, and the 
subjugated ignorant. Christianity says the 
reverse of all this, and it has given a mighty 
impulse to the human mind. The interest and 
variety of the contents of the Bible seem designed 
by Providence for this end ; they make it pre* 
eminently the people's book — the book of the 
city and of the village, of the mechanic, labourer, 
artizan and cottager ; of the aged poor and the 
infant poor; the cause why millions prize the 
ability to read, transmit it down to millions 
more, and harbinger the wide diffusion of know- 
ledge, and gradual perfection of intellect. 

While the influence of pure Christianity is 
good unmixed, and of the highest order, that of 
its various corruptions is as decidedly evil. So 
far as these additions or perversions relate to 
Trinitarian worship, and Ecclesiastical domi- 
nation, their effects have been already exhibited. 
There are some other points which must now 
be noticed. 



136 ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 



The church of England retains so much 
ceremony, that but for the evangelical party, 
and the reaction produced by the activity of 
different classes of Dissenters, the prevailing 
character of the religion of its members would ' 
be that of lifeless and ignorant formality. In 
practice, she rather requires submission than 
faith. Provided a heretic be a good churchman 
in other respects, and can make his own con- 
science easy, he may, so long as his clergyman 
is not evangelical, remain in her communion 
with but little annoyance compared with what 
he would be exposed to amongst orthodox Dis- 
senters. 

Amongst Methodists, and some Methodistic 
Calvinists, there is more of an imaginative re- 
ligion than perhaps has ever existed, (except 
where secluded situation, unincreasing infor- 
mation and aptness of local scenery, have pre- 
served superstitions,) without being dissipated by 
inquiry, or calling in the aid of those sensible 
representations and daily ceremonies, which so 
commonly follow and supersede, and though 
intended as a fortress, remain as a monument. 
They have a vivid perception of that humanized 
Deity, whom the liturgic worshippers only de- 
scribe in words. Liveried angels lacky them 
in their daily occupations, or wait at the gates 
of their chapels to carry to heaven intelligence 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 137 



of convictions and conversions. The very devii 
of their school-book pictures haunts their paths, 
whispers in their ears, and personally superin- 
tends their domestic troubles. Their hell is 
literally a brimstone lake ; and their heaven the 
temple, or city, with the material glory of God, 
and the robes, palms, crowns and songs of the 
Apocalypse. They lose the proselytes who take 
to thinking; and the rest would speedily dis- 
band, did a splendid Catholic Establishment 
offer them an asylum. Happily a better destiny 
is prepared for them by Bell and Lancaster. 

Genuine Calvinism is of a much more intel- 
lectual cast. It is framed for power and per- 
manence. It despises ceremony, and rules the 
feelings with a rod of iron. It has all the energy 
of Mahometanism, in its most vigorous days, 
but without those seeds of weakness which so 
soon sprung up in its prosperity. The perpetual 
modifications of modern Caivinists have deprived 
the system of much of the gloomy grandeur, 
stern consistency, and almost omnipotent con- 
troul over the mind, which belonged to it ori- 
ginally. Those advocates have thereby shewn 
their own amiability, their respect for the Scrip- 
tures, and the approximation of their party 
towards pure Christianity. They have suffered 
reason to step beyond her allotted province in 
their creed, where she is treated as a slave, and 



138 ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 



employed to do the drudgery of completing and 
cementing parts, but not allowed to touch the 
foundations of the fabric. Calvinism is great 
only when taken as a whole ; and then formi* 
dable because, on erroneous principles, and for 
perverted objects, it exercises so much the 
powers of the understanding, and so completely 
pervades the mind with its tyrannous influence. 
It does not enfeeble or degrade, but embitter, 
darken and pervert the soul. The effects of 
this system on society are in strong contrast 
with those resulting from the milder and purer 
faith delineated in the last Lecture. 

The character of God is exhibited in different 
lights. It may be said by all that he is supremely 
excellent, but the agreement is only verbal, for 
the details of this excellence display a complete 
contrariety. The opposite believers trace it in 
God as loving all his creatures, and as loving 
only a part ; as forming all for happiness, and as 
foredooming numbers to misery; as making us 
individually responsible, and as both condemning 
and saving by moral substitution ; as forgiving 
freely on repentance, and as dispensing mercy 
only after a satisfaction to his justice; as pu- 
nishing to correct, and as condemning vin- 
dictively, and for ever. Have these opposite 
believers the same notion of goodness ? If so, 
it is impossible, whatever be professed, that they 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 



139 



should recognize the same portion of it in their 
God. But if each believe in the absolute per- 
fection of his God, their notions of moral 
excellence must be widely different, of that 
excellence to which they render their highest 
admiration, by which they form their own cha- 
racters, and the imitation of which is the first 
principle of their religion. So far as this dark 
notion of the Deity is unchecked by the native 
movements of the heart, the unequivocal pre- 
cepts of religion, and the intermixture of better 
principles, it tends to form a gloomy bigot, mi- 
serable in himself and pernicious to others. 

And has not the notion that conversion from 
sin to holiness is an immediate and miraculous 
work of the Holy Spirit on the mind, which no 
human power can attain, and when attained, no 
human power destroy, an influence on society to 
be deprecated by the philanthropist ? Does it 
not produce presumption in some, and despair 
in others ? It has produced them widely and 
dreadfully. How deplorable his state, who be- 
lieves in election, but is unconvinced of his own 
election ; and in miraculous conversion, which 
he cannot satisfy himself that he has ever felt; 
over whose devoted head have rolled, in imagi- 
nation, the thunders of Almighty wrath ; who 
feels himself already fettered in every limb, and 
waiting for execution ; with no hand on earth 



140 ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 

to aid, no pitying voice from heaven to speak 
the words of mercy and of power, the conscious, 
helpless child of depravity and of misery, of 
everlasting misery ! And suppose this much- 
desired conviction gained; his eternal salvation 
is now secure ; he may, to use a favourite ex- 
pression, " fall foully, but not finally." How 
immense the distance between him and the 
beings amongst whom he lives and moves ! He 
is a child of God, but they are children of the 
devil ; his mind is the illumined and purified 
residence of the Holy Ghost, theirs the abode 
of total and invincible depravity ; he is clothed 
with the spotless robe of imputed righteousness, 
while their seeming virtues are but splendid sins. 
Alike as they may seem to human eye, there is 
the awful difference of spiritual life and death, 
the favour and wrath of God, and an eternal 
destiny of joy and anguish. Is human nature 
to be trusted on this giddy elevation ? Is this a 
faith which " worketh by love or is it not in 
danger of becoming the source of pride, cen- 
soriousness, presumption and selfishness ? 

Not only is heaven supposed to be the pe- 
culiar inheritance of the elect; and saving faith, 
tire faith of Calvinism more or less rigorously 
interpreted, an indispensable mark of election; 
but earth is preserved only for their sakes, to be 
the scene of their redemption, calling and sane- 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 



141 



tification, and when their number is completed, 
this goodly and glorious frame of things is to be 
dashed to pieces like useless machinery. 

f< Thus shall this moving engine last 
Till all his saints are gathered in, 
Then for the trumpet's dreadful blast 
To shake it all to dust again I" 

Watts. 

The benevolent feelings must be injured, and 
very much limited in their operation, by such 
theories. It is not surprising, however it may 
be deplored, that they should lead to such views 
of the endless misery of others, as are expressed 
in the following extract from the writings of one 
of the ablest defenders of Calvinism : 

" The saints in heaven will behold the tor- 
ments of the damned. The smoke of their 
torments ascendeth up for ever and ever ! They 
shall be tormented in the presence of the holy 
angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. So 
shall they be tormented in the presence of the 
glorified saints ! 

64 Hereby will saints be rendered more sen- 
sible how great their salvation is ; when they 
see how great the misery is from which God has 
saved them, and how great the difference he 
has made between their state and the state of 
others, who were by nature, and perhaps for a 
time by practice, more sinful and hell- deserving 



142 ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 



than any. It will give them a greater sense of 
the wonderful n ess of God's grace towards them ! 
Every time they look upon the damned, it will 
excite in them a lively and admiring sense of 
the grace of God in making them to differ. 

<; The sight of hell torments will exalt the 
happiness of the saints for ever ! It will not 
only make them more sensible of the greatness 
and freeness of the grace of God in their hap- 
piness, but it will really make their happiness 
the greater, as it will make them more sensible 
of their own happiness. It will give them a 
more lively relish for it ; it will make them prize 
it the more, when thev see others who were of 
the same nature, and born under the same cir- 
cumstances, plunged into such misery, and they 
so distinguished ! Oh ! it w^ill make them sen- 
sible how happy they are ! A sense of the 
opposite misery, in all cases, greatly increases 
the relish of any joy or pleasure !' J 

This passage, as to the spirit which it breathes, 
the svstem from which it flowed, or the effect 
of that system upon the social feelings of our 
nature, requires no comment. 

To creeds, with their usual accompaniments, 
we owe much of the duration of mischiefs and 
absurdities, which else would perish with their 
authors. There can be no objection to any 
Christian's expressing his own idea of the doc- 
trines of Scripture in his own language ; but 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 14 



there is great objection to such statements being 
adopted by Christian Churches, and vested with 
any sort of importance or authority. They 
sprung up in the Christian Church in company 
with error, avarice, pride and persecution. At 
best they must be objects of jealous suspicion 
to the friend of religious liberty. They are 
usually both imperfect and erroneous. What- 
ever be truth, who can deem it possible that all 
the propositions contained in the Thirty-nine 
Articles should be true ? How many of their 
subscribers believe a majority of them ? As 
to their perfection, in a collection of sixteen 
creeds of Protestant Churches, published at 
Geneva, 16 12, there are only six (of which that 
of the Church of England is not one) that speak 
of the providence of God ; and eleven take no 
notice of the resurrection of the dead. Creeds 
are deadly to inquiry. They say to the mind, 
" Thus far shalt thou go, and no further." They 
are too often badges of temporal superiority for 
some, and instruments of tyranny over others. 
They are associated with the notions of esta- 
blishment and priesthood ; and in this way, as 
well as others, lead to persecution : while in 
their avowed object of producing uniformity of 
opinion, they have, in the Church at least, 
totally failed, and only proved, instead, traps to 
catch consciences. Amongst Dissenters, their 
use is but too common, and active superinten- 



144 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 



dance makes them more efficacious, and conse- 
quently more mischievous. With this thorny 
fence they often guard their schools, churches, 
seminaries for the ministry, and pulpits, against 
the inroads of heresy. If successful, they may 
keep out, with it, freedom of thought and speech, 
independence of mind, and even sincerity. 

To the evil of creeds we oppose the utility of 
controversy ; but it ought not to be forgotten 
that on the utility of controversy there are some 
serious drawbacks. Passion is too apt to mingle 
in it, and bring uncharitableness or calumny in 
its train. The practised debater often handles 
sacred things with unbecoming levity; and the 
struggle will occasionally be less for truth than 
for victory. Pious feeling is exceedingly liable 
to suffer in theological conflicts. A disputatious 
spirit sweeps, with the force and fury of a whirl- 
wind, the sacrifice from the altar of devotion, 
and extinguishes its holiest fires. These evils 
should ever be guarded against with the utmost 
caution. Still we must look to controversy 
as the chief means of realizing that reformation 
of Christianity, that reversion to its original 
principles, which must precede any great im- 
provement in the state of the world. Its utility 
cannot be better demonstrated than by shewing 
the results already produced by the Unitarian 
controversy on the Christian public. Those 
results are of great importance ; and they are 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 145 

also connected with the general design of these 
Lectures, by their bearing on the present state 
and future prevalence of Unitarian Christianity. 

The Unitarian controversy has done good, 
because it is a controversy ; a Christian contro- 
versy, conducted on Christian principles, by 
appeals to the New Testament. Controversy 
rightly conducted, with the temper unruffled, 
the heart unprejudiced, is good for man. It is 
the destiny of his nature to learn, not by in- 
tuition, but discussion. It is the dignity of 
reason to bow, not to authority, but conviction. 
It is the dictate of Christianity to believe, not 
on hearsay, but examination. But this contro- 
versy has had results connected with the word of 
God, of a highly beneficial nature. It has di- 
rected the attention of critics to the constitution 
of the sacred text, and been the occasion of pu- 
rifying it from additions and corruptions, made 
by carelessness, wantonness, or party spirit, in 
former times. I say nothing about such pas- 
sages as the initial chapters of Matthew aftid 
Luke, which are still under discussion ; but 
there are others which all who understand the 
subject, now admit to have been no part of the 
original text. Some of these are very remark- 
able, as Acts xx. 28, where God, instead of the 
Lord, has been made to purchase the church 
with his own blood; 1 Tim. iii. 16, where God is 
inserted for which, or who, referring to the gospel 



146 ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C 



or to Christ, most probably the former : Rev. 
i. 11, where " I am Alpha and Omega, the first 
and the last," has been put into the mouth of 
Christ. Dr. Doddridge professes that this, more 
than any text in the Bible, prevented him from 
believing Jesus Christ to have been a creature. 
And 1 John v. 7? 8, where the well-known inter- 
polated words approached nearer to a declaration 
of the Trinity in Unity than any passage of 
Scripture. These are generally given up by 
well-informed Trinitarians. It is a fact, then, 
that additions were made to the word of God, 
that these additions are now discovered and ex- 
ploded, and that this has been owing to the 
revival of Unitarianism, without which nobody 
would have been interested in their detection. 
To purify the Scriptures from man's additions, is 
to deserve well of the Christian world. If a 
curse is denounced against them who add to, or 
take from holy writ, surely a blessing rests on 
those by whom its integrity is restored and vin- 
dicated. And observe, these corruptions were 
introduced during the advance and prevalence of 
Trinitarian ism ; they are all in favour of Trinita- 
rian ism ; and they gave way in the attacks made 
upon Trinitarianism : of the two systems, one 
mixed its chaff with the wheat, while the other, 
with the winnowing fan of controversy, has 
purged the floor. The ark of God, as it sailed 
down the stream of corrupt ages, was soiled 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 147 

with the slime of superstition, till reviving truth 
washed off the stains and recovered its original 
purity. By false translations the unlearned 
reader was made to believe that that was, which 
was not, the word of God. Thus where the 
apostle enjoins to forgive one another, even as God, 
by Christ, hath forgiven you, (Rph. iv. 32,) the 
common translation has, for Christ's sake, which 
every one knows to be unfair. It was an at- 
tempt, as revelation passed from the Greek into 
the English, to slip in by the way the doctrine 
of Atonement. Many more cases might be ad- 
duced, in which the authorized version, instead 
of receiving the water of life as into transparent 
crystal, shewing all its purity and brilliance, has 
been a foul and stained cup, tinging it with the 
dark colours of human creeds. Right interpre- 
tation is seldom obtained where any party holds 
unchecked the key, and makes every thing bend 
to system. Intelligent Trinitarians now would 
be ashamed of urging for that doctrine many 
texts which were formerly thought demonstrative. 
Studies of this kind were once peculiar to the 
learned, and the many rested on their authority. 
During the last twenty years, in connexion with 
the progress of Unitarianism, they have become 
popular, and a degree of knowledge has been 
diffused, that elevates a considerable proportion 
of our societies to the level of the critics of 
former times. Biblical criticism, the high pro- 

l 2 



1148 ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 

vince of the learned, was but a cloud floating 
aloft for men to gaze at, and often darkening the 
light of truth, till, at the electric touch of con- 
troversy, the mass dissolved in a descending 
shower, which has enriched the vale of humble 
life with fruits of heavenly wisdom. Men have 
been made more familiar with the Scriptures, 
and have studied them to greater purpose. They 
alone have been appealed to. The word of God 
has been exalted. The text of the Bible has 
been purified, — the translation of the Bible has 
been corrected, — the meaning of the Bible has 
been elucidated, — the study of the Bible has 
been promoted. This is an important step to- 
wards the renovation of Christianity. 

Another encouraging symptom, resulting from 
the Unitarian controversy, is the gradual lowering 
of the standard of orthodoxy. A comparison of 
the language of the popular religionists of the 
present day, with the writings of those who lived 
a century ago, and with intermediate authors, 
indicates a very considerable change, and a much 
greater degree of moderation, and a closer ad- 
herence to Scripture. The Trinity is now com- 
monly spoken of in guarded and ambiguous 
language. All that many will say on the sub- 
ject, is, that there are three somewhats in the 
Deity, which, for want of a better term, are 
called persons. How unlike the bold descrip- 
tions of Bull, Waterland and others, of the 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 149 

mutual indwelling, impenetration, empericho- 
resis, of the persons, the dictatorial peculiarity 
of the Athanasian Creed, or even the language 
of men so enlightened as Taylor, Barrow, &c. 
These and other writers, both in and out of the 
church, spoke of Christ also, of his miraculous 
conception and divine sufferings, in terms which 
to impute now to their successors, would be 
deemed calumnious. Similar changes have taken 
place on other subjects. The doctrine of Sa- 
tisfaction, instead of glaring in all the enormity 
of a bargain between a merciless, vindictive 
creditor, and an independent, generous surety, 
is softened by a surrounding shade of mys- 
tery, and thrown into the indefiniteness of moral 
causation. The horrid decree of Reprobation 
is now rarely blazoned in flaming characters 
on the appalled sight. Instead of being re- 
sistlessly hurled, the non-elect are suffered 
of themselves to fall into endless torment. 
The notion of salvation by faith alone is uni- 
formly or frequently accompanied by assertions 
of the necessity of good works. Worship is 
approaching the scriptural standard. Frequent 
and exclusive prayers to the Holy Ghost begin 
to be symptoms of high, in distinction from 
moderate orthodoxy. Such language as that of 
"Watts, in the following verses, is disused by^ 
some congregations 5 and by many individuals 



150 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 



is referred to with pain, shame, or condem- 
nation : 

" Rich were the drops of Jesus' blood, 
That calmed his frowning face, 
That sprinkled o'er the burning throne, 
And turn'd the wrath to grace." 

And, 

" To thee ten thousand thanks we bring, 
Great Advocate on high ; 
And glory to th' Eternal King, 
Who lays his fury by.'* 

Had the Church of England and the Calvin- 
istic Dissenters to frame their creeds, without 
precedent to guide them, the Thirty-nine Ar- 
ticles would not originate with the one, nor the 
Assembly's Confession with the other. The stan- 
dard of orthodoxy is lower than it was ; and it 
continues to sink : but if the party be right now } 
they have been wrong ; if now they are strictly 
scriptural, they have been unscriptural, and they 
have to thank their opponents for driving or 
shaming them back into the right road. While 
individuals (in no small number) have completely 
renounced the system, the whole mass has slowly 
receded; the tide yet ebbs and flows at intervals; 
but the old mark is not reached at its height, 
and at its influx the old bank is left unwashed 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 151 

by the billows ; for generations yet the fluctu- 
ations may continue, but all will finally settle at 
the point of truth. 

Christian liberality is indebted to the same 
cause for being more clearly defined, and ge- 
nerally cultivated. While salvation is connected 
with a creed, inquiry is daunted by anathemas ; 
conscience fettered by impositions ; charity re- 
stricted by unauthorized limitations ; and the 
gates of heaven barred by human inventions. 
To Unitarianism belongs the glory of opening 
that page of Scripture which teaches that " God 
is no respecter of persons ; but in every country 
he that feareth him and worketh righteousness, 
is accepted with him the honour of vindica- 
ting the innocency of involuntary mental error, 
embracing in fraternal love the good of all parties 
here, and breathing the hope of a heaven for all 
the virtuous hereafter. Nor has this honourable 
stand been altogether unsuccessful. There is a 
growing spirit of charity and generosity amono* 
Christians ; an approach to the temper of that 
undying, apostolic declaration, which is the very 
essence, standard, soul of Christian liberality. 
Events have aided this, and there have been 
some which, one would think, few hearts could 
resist. Stoutly cased in bigotry must his heart 
be, and invulnerable to every generous emotion, 
who has, when a child, lisped his Maker's praises 
in the sweet simplicity of Watts' s infant hymns ; 



152 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 



and in maturer life, borrowed his harmonious 
language to embody the pious feelings of his 
soul, and present them to his God ; and then 
read his almost dying renunciation of the Trinity, 
in the belief of which he had been educated; 
who can see the high worth and piety and good- 
ness of a Lindsey, and follow his mind through 
its course of inquiry and conversion, to the 
heroic renunciation of his earthly prospects; 
who can enjoy the noble effusions of a Robinson^ 
and see the pleader for the divinity of Christ 
ultimately convinced in spite of his own argu- 
ments ; and yet from the heaven of his hopes 
exclude the converts of Unitarianism. There 
are still dark souls of this description ; but with 
Unitarianism the light of love arose on the world, 
and will shine " more and more unto the perfect 
day." 

The tendency of Unitarianism is to destroy 
sectarianism. Its votaries are separated by so 
mighty a barrier from the rest of the Christian 
world, that they readily overlook the lesser dif- 
ferences among themselves ; like a few persons 
of different nations, shipwrecked on a desert 
island, who, whether their native countries be 
at peace or war, find it necessary to unite cor- 
dially, and render each other good-will and kind 
offices. All the minor varieties that have made 
parties, fostered bigotry, excited alienation and 
persecution, exist among them commonly, with- 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 163 



out interfering with social peace or individual 
affection. And though to a much less extent, 
yet something of the same result has been pro- 
duced among their opponents; and the necessity 
of defending the great peculiarities of their 
system, has softened the asperities that used 
to attend its more minute varieties. Good men 
have long looked forward to a time when dogmas 
and leaders should cease to give names to reli- 
gious societies ; when they should merge in the 
more honourable title of Christian ; and there 
should be " one fold and one shepherd." Let 
us hope that to this state we are approaching; 
and that as inferior distinctions are becoming- 
absorbed in the greater, they also will, by a con- 
tinuance of the same operation, at length vanish, 
and sects and creeds bow their usurping heads 
before the name of Christian and the apostolic 
confession, " There is one God, and one me- 
diator between God and men, the man Christ 
Jesus." 

Meanwhile, the great cause of civil and reli- 
gious liberty has been advanced. The latter 
was very imperfectly understood and practised 
at the Reformation. It was claimed or denied, 
as parties were in or out of power. Often was 
it claimed for societies, but denied by them to 
individuals. Unitarianism sprung up in the 
bosom of other denominations, and its votaries 
claimed in their own defence, real religious 



134 ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 



liberty, viz. individual liberty in a Christian 
Church. With its progress the subject has be- 
come better understood. It is remarkable, that 
when Trinitarianism originally sprung up in a 
similar way, it was followed by no similar result r 
till it acquired influence, it was timid ; and 
then, tyrannous. This shews a difference of 
spirit and tendency. In the first four centuries* 
doctrinal corruption and ecclesiastical domina- 
tion advanced hand in hand ; together were 
they born ; together did they revel on human 
sacrifices ; and together will they perish. The 
same malignant star ruled at their nativity, and 
the same triumphal shout shall peal the glad- 
tidings of their destruction around the enlight- 
ened and liberated globe. And will the man of 
high and just and liberal spirit in religion, be in 
politics the slave or the enslaver ? Is not the 
connexion most intimate between religious and 
civil freedom ? They identify themselves. Re- 
ligious liberty is a civil .right : to assert it is a 
Christian duty. By enlightened principles of 
theology are minds nurtured which are prompt 
firmly to claim their due, and faithfully to dis- 
charge their duty — men who will be just to 
their country and to the world. 
, This rapid view of the results of the Unitarian 
controversy, results so decidedly beneficiaL, not 
only proves the utility of controversy, as a means 
for the discovery and promotion of truth, but 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 155 



indicates our duty, and confirms our hopes. It 
exhibits the arms and triumphs of Unitarianism, 
" The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, 
but mighty through God to the pulling down of 
strong holds : casting down imaginations, and 
every high thing that exalteth itself against the 
knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity 
everv' thought to the obedience of Christ/' 

The present state of Unitarianism is most 
encouraging to its advocates. It has advanced 
in defiance of prejudices the most obstinate and 
extensive, and amid the assaults and anathemas 
of almost all the sects into which Christianity is 
distributed. Till within the last fifty years it 
scarcely existed in Britain but as the religion of 
individuals, but since that time numerous con- 
gregations have been formed ; it has been 
embraced by the greater part of the Presbyterian 
and General Baptist denominations ; and has 
received large accessions from other classes. It 
has been preached to the poor, and they have 
heard it gladly. Whole societies of Methodists, 
guided only by the Bible, have adopted its 
tenets, even without being aware that there 
were any other persons in the world of a similar 
faith. A considerable body of Unitarians exists 
in Transylvania. Numbers are scattered over 
the continent; and the Reformed churches seem 
generally to be receding with a slow and siien^ 
but not uncertain progress, from the harsh 



1 56 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 



doctrines of their ancestors : at Geneva, the 
temple of Calvin is become the monument of 
Servetus : an Unitarian Church has sprung up 
at Madras, consisting of natives, who are chiefly 
converts from Heathenism : while the progress 
already made, and the opportunities afforded, in 
America, promise a career of triumph through 
that widely-extended empire. Unitarianism is 
no longer the seed sown by the way side, 
exposed to destruction from the birds of the air, 
or the foot of the passenger, from gloomy skies 
or a sterile soil; it has taken root, and sprung 
up, and put forth its branches far and wide ; the 
river of life flows round and nourishes it ; the 
dews of heaven descend upon it ; and when we 
are laid in the dust, others shall rise to admire 
its beauty, stability, and progressive increase, 
till the earth be covered with its shade, and filled 
with its fruits. 

That Unitarianism shall become co-extensive 
with Christianity, and Christianity be the reli- 
gion of the world, are expectations resting on 
the same basis— the power of Truth. Probably 
neither of these events will be brought about, 
though both may be accelerated, by proselyting. 
The progress of Unitarianism is less important 
than the progress towards it of the rest of the 
Christian community ; especially if we observe 
the connexion of this change with the cultivation 
of biblical criticism, with just notions of reli- 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 



15J 



gious liberty, and with the general diffusion of 
education and knowledge. The purity of 
Christianity may be restored, as it was lost, by 
a gradual and general movement. And in the 
same manner may Christianity itself prevail over 
other religions; increasing light leading to the 
detection of one error after another, until there 
shall remain only the easy transition from belief 
in the truths which Jesus taught, to an admission 
of his authority as the Son of God. 

That " Truth is mighty and will prevail," is 
an assertion which has grown by common 
consent into a principle, or axiom, rather serving 
as proof for other propositions, than needing for 
itself the labour of examination and array of 
evidence. It is the dictate of experience. 
The progress of the human race, as to know- 
ledge in general, is analagous to that of the 
individual in the acquisition of physical truth. 
The perceptions of the infant are continually 
erroneous. One sense gradually corrects another ; 
and notions of distance, magnitude and colour, 
at first confused and deceptive, are by repeated 
observation reduced to truth and order. There 
is a continual acquisition of information by the 
senses of the individual, and the intellect of the 
race. The one process begins afresh with each; 
the other is carried on from generation to gene- 
ration. Knowledge once published becomes 
the property of the world. Where evidence is 



158 ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 

adduced, and the mind is impartial, it is obvious 
that truth must always prevail over error. Now 
towards this state, of candour in the judgment, 
and complete evidence as to the subject, does 
all discussion and discovery tend. To this 
point they are continually advancing; and that 
approximation is a security for the ultimate 
reception of truth by all. There are obstacles 
in the passions, habits and pursuits of men ; but 
they are neither eternal nor invincible. They 
are comparatively weak; they are temporary; 
they are self-destructive. What shall success- 
fully attempt to stay the march of truth ? Shall 
ignorance ? And what is there in ignorance to 
ensure its own eternity ? It has no power. It 
is but a negation : a blank which may be filled 
up ; waste land which may be cultivated. It 
has been diminishing for ages, and diminishes 
every day. Its resistance is that of emptiness 
to substance, of nothing to existence. Shall 
education ? This may do much for prolonging 
error, may transmit it from generation to gene- 
ration ; but not for ever. Its power is equal on 
the side of truth ; and therefore, if resistless, it 
would prevent our retrograding. But who is 
there among you that has not met with numerous 
instances of its yielding to personal conviction ? 
How many are yourselves monuments of its 
inability to withstand the force of evidence ? 
Shall antiquity and authority ? They often 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 1 59 



reconcile to absurdity and sanctify falsehood : 
but where are the proofs of their permanently 
rebutting truth ? Did they protect the temples 
of Jupiter and Mars, and save them from 
becoming Christian Churches ? Could they 
rivet the chains of Popery on our ancestors, 
when they arose in might to snap them asunder? 
Do they now preserve what men follow the 
decision of a thousand years in deeming the 
holiest mysteries of faith, from free discussion 
and complete rejection ? O no — they are no 
invincible barrier : they have been trampled 
down by hostile feet, and have borne the banners 
of triumphant foes. Shall political authority, 
interest, persecution ? What institutions can 
pretend to perpetuity ? What is history but 
the record of their changes ? The establishment 
of error cannot enable it permanently to resist 
knowledge and inquiry. For a time it may be 
upheld by bribery ; external respect may be 
enforced ; and opposition be fiercely avenged : 
but this cannot last: conscience cannot be 
permanently bribed, nor thought imprisoned. 
Institutions must give way to, or fall before, the 
improving spirit of the times. Persecution is 
becoming obsolete. The puny efforts which 
public opinion now allows it to make, only resist 
the advance of mind as reeds stay the torrent, or 
straws impede the whirlwind. 

We have " a more sure word of prophecy." 



160 ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 



Christianity asserts its own future universality. 
Our Lord, by his parables of the grain of 
mustard seed, which became a spreading tree, 
and of the leaven which pervaded the whole 
mass, intimated the indefinite increase of his 
religion. He taught to pray, and therefore to 
hope, that the kingdom of God might come, and 
his " will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." 
That spiritual kingdom, according to ancient 
prediction, was to " stand for ever/' and " fill 
the whole earth." Dan. ii. " The earth shall 
be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the 
waters cover the sea." Isaiah xi. 9. " All the 
ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our 
God/' Isaiah lii. 10. The Lord will " destroy 
the face of the covering cast over all people, and 
the vail that is spread over all nations." Isaiah 
xxv. 7- Such prophecies as these are continually 
occurring, in reference to the spiritual reign of 
the Messiah. I will only add, that as Daniel, 
Paul and John, in passages formerly adduced, 
connect the spread of the gospel with the 
destruction of Antichrist, it is also blended with 
the conversion of the Jews. " Blindness in 
part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of 
the Gentiles be come in : and so all Israel shall 
be saved." Rom. xi. 25. 

Truth must prevail. History records that it 
has no resistless enemy. It is the heritage of 
man, and he advances to its possession : its 



ON 



CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 



161 



prevalence is the promise of Scripture, and 
prophecy shall be accomplished : it is the object 
of Providence, and Providence is universal : it 
is favoured of God, and God is omnipotent. 
We rejoice in the prospect, whether the success 
of truth be that of our opinions, or of others. 
Perish error, though we may wander in its 
mazes! If our workmanship be only wood, 
hay and stubble, let it be consumed, and our- 
selves saved as by fire, so that the temple of 
truth be purified from every incumbrance and 
pollution. But we believe that Unitarianism is 
truth, is Christianity. It bears all their sacred 
characters, and claims their promised univer- 
sality. Prophecy envelopes them in a common 
glory, and decrees for them the same splendid 
destiny. " The Lord shall be King over all the 
earth: in that day shall there be One Lord, and 
his name, One/' 

For a time, indeed, this union was dissolved ; 
and with it, fled the energy of Christianity. 
Only with its revival can the gospel again go 
forth, " conquering and to conquer/' Corruption 
led to wealth and political authority ; but they 
were ineffectual substitutes for truth. Not 
only did what was called Christianity cease to 
spread, but it actually succumbed before impos- 
ture ; and Mahometanism made more progress 
in five-and-twenty years, than nominal Chris- 
tianity in fourteen centuries. The Trinity, and 

M 



162 ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 



similar and kindred doctrines, are the great 
obstacles to its diffusion. No extensive acces- 
sion of enlightened converts can be expected 
anterior to their removal. That event approaches ; 
nor does the interval of darkness and corruption 
affect our hopes, for it was foreseen, and its 
termination fixed, by the same authority as that 
which gives them confidence. God has sketched 
for us a plan of the march of truth. Her path 
is drawn through dark caverns and gloomy 
wilds ; but ending on the lofty mountain of 
wide dominion. Into that deep abyss she 
entered, and through that howling wilderness 
her steps have passed. Already she emerges, 
and climbs the promised elevation ; nor can we 
doubt her attainment of its summit, to reign 
there in permanent and unrivalled majesty. 
How felicitous then will be the power of pure 
religion over society ; all weakening corruptions 
removed, the hypocrisy that disgusts, the super- 
stition that degrades, the pride that insults 1 
Unpolluted by being made longer subservient to 
the policy of states, or the arts of priests, how 
rapid and blissful will be its career, restraining 
the passions of men, advancing their improve- 
ment, and blending nations into brotherhood ! 
But Reformation must precede diffusion. Uni- 
tarianism must herald the universalitv of Chris- 
tianityi must go before, like the Baptist, to 
prepare its way; to level the mountains of 



ON CREEDS, CONTROVERSY, &C. 



163 



prejudice; to make strait the crooked ways of 
mystery and superstition ; to smooth the rough 
places of bigotry ; and then " shall the glory of 
the Lord be revealed, and all flesh shall see it 
together ; for the mouth of the Lord hath 
spoken it." 



m 9 



( 164 ) 



LECTURE VL 

ON WAR. 



Isaiah ii. 4. 

And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, 
and their spears into pruning -hooks : nation 
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither 
shall they learn war any more. 

Our present subject should, according to an 
arrangement strictly logical, form merely a sub- 
division of the next, and concluding Lecture, 
on the Perfectibility of Man. The human race 
has been, I believe, gradually advancing, not- 
withstanding many apparent interruptions, and 
even retrograde movements, and is destined to 
a still more rapid and brilliant course of 
improvement, which will chiefly be effected by 
the agency of Christianity, purified from the 
corruptions which have palsied its strength, and 
perverted its influence. In reviewing the 
obstacles which impede the salutary operations 
of pure religion on the destiny of mankind, war 
presents itself, foremost and pre-eminent, as 



OK WAR. 



165 



most hideous in itself, and most formidable in 
its resistance. I give it a separate discussion 
to discharge that Lecture of a topic far too 
momentous to be made only a secondary con- 
sideration, and also by shewing what views may 
be held of its final abolition to prepare the way 
for unembarrassed attention to the general 
prospects of the nations of the earth, as involved 
in the designs of Providence, and the promises 
of revelation. 

The present is a favourable time for this 
discussion. We are at peace with all the world. 
Long may we remain so. Were it otherwise, it 
would be a duty not to shrink from telling the 
truth of God, though to reluctant ears, and in 
spite of malicious tongues. That a particular 
application would be made of general reflections, 
that a remonstrance against war would be 
interpreted of any particular contest in which 
the country might be engaged, and considered 
a sign of disaffection, as well as of enthusiasm, 
would not excuse the professor of Christianity 
from reminding his brethren and countrymen of 
the violated laws and spirit of the gospel. If a na- 
tion be criminal, at the bar of God let that nation 
be arraigned, by the word of God let that nation 
be condemned. But at such a time, the clamour 
of the interested would be raised, the timid, the 
ignorant, and the unthinking, would be alarmed 
and imposed on, and the subject would have to 



166 



ON WAR, 



struggle with accumulated difficulties. Now it 
is likelier to have a fair hearing, and to produce 
beneficial effects. The late contest has left 
here, and in other realms, a wholesome weariness 
with war, which should be improved by those 
who are on principle the friends of peace. The 
public, at least all who think, seem to be feeling 
much like the ruined spendthrift on his wild 
excesses, and the condemned malefactor on his 
criminal passions. Those who wish well to 
human interests should seize such a moment, 
and exert themselves, on this subject, to form 
just opinions and diffuse useful information. 
The labour would not be lost, either as to the 
ultimate object, or the immediate influence. 

We comprise the object of this discourse in 
one sentence — war is a great, but not insuperable, 
obstacle to that general improvement in the state 
of man which Christianity tends, and was de- 
signed to realize. 

War is opposed to the well-being and progress 
of society by the misery it inflicts, the crimi- 
nality it implies, and the mischiefs it produces. 
To men of human feelings, Christian principles, 
general benevolence, it is unnecessary to advance 
laboured proof of these assertions. Nothing 
more is required than attention to the subject. 

From the humblest agent whom poverty or 
folly may have driven or cajoled into military- 
service, or the wretchedest inhabitant of the 



ON WAR. 



167 



seat of hostilities, to the vast empires by whom 
they are waged, war is associated with suffering. 
Scenes may be shifted, and success may vary, 
but the misery is permanent. It is alike the 
sad accompaniment of the lamentation for defeat, 
and the joyous song of victory. There is nothing 
of good but what is foreign, ambiguous and 
accidental. The evil is great, inseparable and 
essential. Trace it in the field of battle. What 
multitudes are there assembled, that the scythe 
of death may mow them down with greater fa- 
cility — that not individuals, but thousands, may 
be levelled at a stroke ! Dreadful scene of in- 
discriminate slaughter ! There perish the mighty 
and renowned, there the young, the healthy and 
the vigorous. The qualities which, in the or- 
dinary course of things, seem to promise ex- 
emption from the ravages of mortality, there 
only recommend them for the sacrifice, and fit 
them to be victims. And surround it, as we 
may, with epithets of glory, or think to reward 
it with the meed of fame, still what a death is 
the soldier's ! What rational being would thus 
take the awful step into the unseen world — what 
Christian would wish the fierce passions, or un- 
mitigated agonies of that scene, to be his last 
earthly feeling, his preparation for standing at 
the bar of God ? For the bed of death one 
would wish all that is soothing and consolatory. 
Wretched and comfortless is the soldier's fate. 



168 



ON WAR. 



He is alone in the midst of thousands. The 
vanquished in their hasty flight, the victors in 
their hot pursuit, care not for him. On the cold 
ground he lies, forsaken, mangled and trampled 
on ; no tender hand to staunch the flowing 
blood, or raise his fainting frame ; no kind 
tongue to whisper consolation ; he thinks, per- 
haps distractedly, of those loved ones who should 
have encompassed his dying bed ; but his sick- 
ening glance meets only sights of horror, and he 
hears only piercing groans, and frantic shouts, 
and bitter shrieks, and the roar of that deadly 
thunder which strews the field with companions 
in misery. But comparatively few fall in the 
field : of greater numbers, fatigue and disease 
are the lingering and loathsome destiny. If the 
grass yet grows bright and green on the plains of 
Waterloo, fed with the rotting carcasses of thou- 
sands who bled in battle; there are plains yet in 
Russia, their surface bleached with the bones of 
the best of France and Italy, who were levelfed 
by no hostile blow, but sunk under the cold, fa- 
mine, and fatigue of that disastrous retreat. All 
protracted warfare is the prolongation of misery 
in a thousand forms, more agonizing than what is 
suffered in the bloodiest field of battle. Often 
does it make men pray for death, as a release from 
present anguish. But not to conflicting armies 
are confined the evils of war: they are the centre 
of mischief, but it spreads around them widely : 



ON WAR, 



169 



they are the nucleus of crime and misery, but 
large is its pestilential atmosphere. Wherever 
they go, they carry desolation, — they devour like 
locusts, — they blast like the lightning, — they 
destroy like the volcano, — they overwhelm like 
the earthquake. Little is spared by plunder, 
revenge, or wantonness : at their approach, har- 
vests vanish, and burning villages are torches to 
light their march: law is at an end: life, honour, 
property, are held on sufferance, by the mercy 
of the sword. O what have the peaceful inha- 
bitants to recount, by whose abodes this torrent 
has rolled ! They have survived scenes, they 
have tales to tell, which, long as they remember, 
shall wring their hearts, which their tongues shall 
faulter to repeat, and at which the listening tra- 
veller shall shudder. Nor in escaping from the 
seat of war to remotest nations involved in it, 
can we escape its horrors. They have a kind of 
infernal omnipresence. The warrior is seldom 
an isolated being. Far distant from the field on 
which he conquers, or dies, or the hospital in 
which he lingers, there may be many a bosom 
throbbing with anxiety for him. His sufferings 
are multiplied in theirs. He may, perhaps, 
perish instantaneously ; but they may long suffer 
from anxiety, or mourn in anguish. On him is 
dealt the fatal stroke, but they feel the wound. 
The aged widow, tottering to the grave, weeps 
the child who should have soothed and sup- 



170 



ON WAR. 



ported her declining years. The mother bends 
in unutterable anguish over her orphaned babes. 
The heart of affection is torn in sunder. Every 
sympathy of life is turned to bitterness and 
poison. In this favoured land, we have long 
been privileged from the immediate presence of 
war : on British ground, not one of you has 
heard the roar of battle, or seen its carnage ; 
but who has not heard the voice of mourning ? 
In those days when giddy crowds pealed high 
their acclamations, how many a bereaved one 
fled from the joyous uproar to the solitude of 
comfortless sorrow ! How many does war de- 
prive of all the comforts of life, by crippling 
industry, baffling foresight in its vicissitudes, 
and from its enormous expenditure forcing every 
thing into an unnatural state ! In this country, 
how many families did the late war find happy, 
opulent and respectable ; and leave in beggary ! 
At different periods, what scenes of complicated 
wretchedness have many of our large towns pre- 
sented ! How enormous were the strides of 
pauperism ! It is the tendency of war to pro- 
duce war, and thus to extend and multiply 
miseries. Treaties of peace seem little better 
than links to connect one war with another. 
They leave something ambiguous for future dis- 
sension, some germ of discord, which grows into 
a poison tree. Indeed, the professed object of 
hostility is seldom determined in favour of either 



ON WAR. 



171 



party, by the peace. In the series of wars which 
have for ages desolated Europe, we may generally 
see one growing out of another. The various 
connexions and interests of nations serve to 
spread hostility when once commenced. This 
was particularly exemplified in the late contest, 
into which nation after nation was drawn or 
forced. The torrent of blood swelled, as it 
rolled on ; still fresh sluices opened, till it spread 
and widened, and seemed without fathom or 
bound. Like the Glacier, from the mountain's 
top, it rushed on, accumulating as it fell, and 
finding in one work of ruin materials to render 
the next more wide and dreadful. It stretched 
from the old world to the new, wrapping both 
continents in its flames, and covering the earth 
as with a fiery deluge of desolation. ( m ) Let us 
turn to its moral character. 

War is one great crime. It is not so much a 
violation as a repeal of the laws of morality and 
of God. The precepts of the Bible are directly 
opposite to the maxims of war. " The funda- 
mental rule of the first is, to do good ; of the 
latter, to inflict injuries: the former commands 
us to succour the oppressed ; the latter to over- 
whelm the defenceless: the former teaches men 
to love their enemies ; the latter to make them- 
selves terrible even to strangers. The rules of 
morality will not suffer us to promote the dearest 
interest by falsehood ; the maxims of war ap- 



172 



ON WAR. 



plaud it when employed in the destruction of 
others." The Bible says, " Thou shalt not kill 
war enjoins, kill— the greater number the more 
glorious: the Bible commands, " Thou shalt not 
not steal f plunder is of war both cause and 
consequence, and indissoluble companion : the 
gospel says, " Overcome evil with good but 
war exhorts to subdue evil by greater evil, 
and more tremendous malignity : the one says, 
" Bless them that curse you, do good to them 
that hate you and the other, carry outrage, 
misery and murder amongst those who have ex- 
cited no anger, inflicted no injury. Who shall 
make these principles coalesce ? 

But surely defensive war is justifiable. And 
what is defensive war? According to the lan- 
guage of courts, almost every war that ever was 
waged has been a defensive war, and on both 
sides too. The defence of what P Of usurped 
territory ; of obsolete claims to dominion ; of 
arrogant pretensions ; of the lordship of distant 
colonies; of imaginary interests; of individual 
assumptions of royalty ; and of a thousand ab- 
surd and wicked things, which war has been 
made to defend ; as if changing a term could 
obliterate a crime? If by the phrase be only 
meant, that, when a land is invaded, its inha- 
bitants take up arms to repel the intruders, and 
lay them down when that is done, — it is a case 
not now under discussion ; it is not properly 



ON WAR. 



173 



called war; nor, if this be all, should it be in- 
volved in the same censure. The criminality of 
wars is seen in their authors, their agents, and 
their effects on society. 

The authors and promoters of wars incur a 
dreadful responsibility. The most favourable 
statement which can be made, is, that they err 
in calculation, by thinking that war would ad- 
vance the interests of their country. This error 
is gross enough ; for where is the war on record 
that proved really advantageous to the people P 
They set all experience at defiance, and throw 
away the lives of multitudes upon a desperate 
game of chances. And should it be successful, 
the good of the victors must be much less than 
the sum of evil which they and the losers share; 
so that in the most plausible case, they are con- 
demned, as sacrificing to selfish patriotism the 
dictates of philanthropy. The real motives are 
generally still worse. It is sometimes an expe- 
dient to take off public attention from the cor- 
rection of internal evils. Sometimes engaged 
in to gratify the pride, passion, or ambition of 
princes. What motives have of late years cher- 
ished the love of war in this country ? Some 
desired it to raise the price of corn ; others to 
destroy the commerce of rival countries, and 
gain us the monopoly of the markets of the 
world ; others for the opportunities afforded of 
gaining wealth or honours. Is all this morally 



174 



ON WAR. 



innocent ? Are classes of men to write, with 
impunity, their caprices in a people's blood, or 
build their greatness on a people's ruin ? 

As to the military profession, the abolition 
of which would be now equivalent to that of 
war, without at all censuring those who may 
conscientiously enter into it, or approve of it, 
I have no hesitation myself in coming to the 
opinion, that it is utterly inconsistent with 
Christianity. The soldier hires himself out to 
kill at the command of others. Did he only 
fight when convinced of the justice of the cause, 
the case would be very different ; but he gives 
up the right of deciding on that. If a war begun, 
as he thinks, in a just cause, by some change 
of circumstances, become unjust in its continu- 
ance, he cannot withdraw ; and the established 
maxim is, that he is to leave that to his superiors. 
What is he, in such a case, but a paid and li- 
censed murderer ? The terms seem harsh — -are 
they not just ? God has pronounced him guilty 
who sheds his fellow's blood : there may be an 
exception for self-defence; but for the command 
of superiors there is no exception. Mr. Scargill, 
in his short but excellent essay on War, avows the 
same opinion: " He who wantonly puts a fellow- 
creature to death, is guilty of murder ; and he 
who puts a fellow-creature to death, without 
knowing why, is equally guilty ; the cause may 
be good, but if he knows it not, he is a mur- 



ON WAR. 



175 



derer, No casuistry can save him from the guilt 
of it. He may conclude that they who lead 
him to slaughter know and are assured of the 
justice of the cause, but unless he knows it 
also, he is in the sight of God guilty of violating 
the laws of heaven. A man may be honestly 
engaged in the service of a certain cause, in 
which circumstances may lead him to war, and 
if fighting may be justified at all, it may be 
right in certain circumstances ; but he is not 
thereby bound to fight in every cause which his 
superiors may adopt." The plain question is, 
does the command of a superior justify a vio- 
lation of the laws of God ? If it does for the 
hired soldier, it does also for the hired assassin. 
Suppose a man were to go to Copenhagen, and 
shoot a person whom he never saw before ; then 
to Washington, and stab another, by whom he 
was never injured ; then to the coast of France, 
and burn a third in his own house ; what would 
all this be but repeated and atrocious murder ? 
Would its moral character be changed by the 
command of a prince, minister or general ? 
Certainly not ; any more than their command 
would justify perjury or forgery. Indeed, the 
vindicators of war must plead that they would 
justify these also. Armies need spies, and they 
must deceive ; and forgery was more than once 
or twice employed in the late contest with great 
applause. 



176 



OX WAR. 



What a school of morals, into which to drain 
off the youthful part of the population of a 
country, after some years of education in it, to 
be turned back upon society! All habits of 
regular industry gone, accustomed to take by 
force, familiarized with wounds and blood, their 
duty slaughtering, and their diversion gambling 
or debauchery, what is to be expected when 
they are disbanded ? What, but that which 
always happens — robberies, murders, crowded 
gaols, disgusting executions. The commence- 
ment of peace sometimes doubles, and more 
than doubles, the number of criminals ; uniformly 
shews a fearful increase. The influx of such 
characters is like inoculating society with a 
moral pestilence. 

This combination of calamity and guilt must, 
and has, proved a gloomy interruption of that 
progress which may still be traced in the history of 
mankind, and it clouds our prospects of futurity. 
It is as if an individual should resolve, at certain 
intervals, to give himself to mischief, and forget 
all distinction of right and wrong, virtue and 
vice, good and evil : to abandon the study of 
truth, and the acquisition of goodness. Such 
an abandonment is war, to nations. 

It prevents civilization. Tribes are kept in 
the savage state by wars with each other, and 
with their more polished neighbours. The 
Slave Trade fomented hostility through a thou- 



ON WAR, 



177 



sand petty kingdoms, who might have been won 
by friendly intercourse to quietness, harmony, 
commerce and improvement. Did America 
pursue a more generous policy towards the 
Aborigines of that continent, they might have all 
been induced, like those of them among whom 
the Quakers settled, to modify their habits and 
. gain a social existence, instead of being destined, 
as they apparently are, to be exterminated by 
the sword of aggression. Civilization to some 
degree has been the occasional and accidental 
result of conquest. It never was the object — ■ 
and might have been better attained by better 
means. On the other hand, the most refined 
have been barbarized, and Rome itself, the 
luxurious and magnificent, beheld her sun go 
back in the heavens to the darkness from which 
it arose. 

The cultivation of literature, the peaceful 
arts of life, the intercourse of different nations, 
which soften and obliterate prejudice, and diffuse 
the discoveries and superiorities of one over all 
others, these great principles of improvement 
are all suspended by war, and for the time almost 
annihilated. The sword divides where oceans 
could not separate. It elevates prejudice and 
destroys philanthropy. Millions of men are 
taught to hate other millions, from whom they 
might receive useful knowledge, to whom they 
might render important service, with whom they 

N 



178 



ON WAR. 



might exchange affection and esteem. As war 
hires to execute slaughter the arm that should 
labour, it also hires to plan that slaughter the 
mind that should enlighten with philosophy and 
science. Its brutalizing magic transforms even 
the energies of intellect into machines of deso- 
lation. 

How fatal are wars to liberty ! Standing 
armies make tyrants, where they do not find 
them. Why does ail the world speak of 
Washington as a singular character? He com- 
manded a victorious army, and did not become 
a military despot. The exception is likely to 
remain unparalleled. The absolute obedience of 
soldiers, and power of generals, is fatal to civil 
liberty. Its death-warrant is signed in any- 
country which aspires to conquest and military 
glory. Thus was Rome ruined. The armies 
made their commanders emperors, who, by their 
aid, made the people slaves, until the citizens, 
who in their days of freedom looked down on 
sovereigns, held property and life at the caprice 
of any fool, or wretch, or villain, to whom the 
Praetorian bands gave the imperial crown, or 
sold it by public auction. Freedom is as 
essential to improvement, as the air we breathe 
to our existenqe. The ornamental arts, or 
lighter literature, may be the trappings of a 
tyrant's throne, but genius cannot breathe the 
atmosphere of slavery. Its productions wither 



ON WAR. 



179 



in the shade of the despot's palace, though 
glittering with splendid ornaments, while they 
flourish on the barren rock, exposed to the 
winds, and beaten by the storm. The captive 
Hebrews hung their harps on the willows of the 
proud Euphrates, but by the lowlier stream 
of Jordan they struck them joyously to the 
sweetest and loftiest songs of Zion. With 
liberty, farewell the strength, and pride, and 
glory of intellect— oppression first forges its 
fetters, and then digs its grave. 

And are mankind always to be driven, by 
ambition, like sheep to the shambles? Is there, 
in the road of improvement, to be at every step, 
a stumbling block ? Yes, say some philosophers, 
whose doctrines have, from various causes, 
obtained a temporary prevalence, the world 
must always be subject to the scourge of war, 
to keep down the excess of population : and 
even were we arrived at Utopian felicity, this 
same tendency to excessive population, would 
prevent its permanence, and bring back war to 
prevent starvation. This, if true, drops the 
curtain on our hopes, and falsifies the wishes of 
benevolence and the promises of heaven. The 
effect on a state of high improvement, once 
gained, belongs to our next Lecture. We only 
ask now, what is really the effect of wars on 
population ? The evil of excessive population 

n 2 



180 



ON WAR. 



is, not in the absolute number, but in its 
extending beyond the means of subsistence. 
While there is food, numbers are advantageous. 
Their increase is a good, provided the means of 
subsistence increase also. As war is now con- 
ducted, that increase may be stopped, or retarded ; 
but the means of subsistence are diminished 
also, and in a greater proportion. By withdraw- 
ing hands from agriculture, and by enormous 
waste and destruction, it is the fact that war 
destroys the means of living, in a greater 
proportion than it destroys life; and consequently 
leaves society in a worse condition, as to the 
real or imagined evil of a redundant population, 
than at its commencement. It is as if a 
community, in danger of famine, should destroy 
a hundred of its members, and in the struggle 
waste the food of two hundred — they would be 
in greater danger than before. And while the 
effect of war on the amount of population 
compared with the means of subsistence has 
been overlooked, its influence on the absolute 
amount has been greatly overrated. Even 
during the late destructive contests, the popula- 
tion of the greater part of Europe has considerably 
increased. To a certain extent, war acts rather 
as a stimulus than as a check. The demand for 
men produces a supply ; and while he can pay 
for them, the slaughter-house of the conqueror.. 



ON WAR. 



181 



like that of the butcher, will not want a supply 
of victims. But enough of an objection which 
is only formidable because it is fashionable. 

The hope that nations may ever have sufficient 
wisdom and goodness to decide their differences 
by a more rational mode than hiring men to cut 
throats and burn towns, is so commonly scouted 
as visionary, that it is expedient to appeal to 
fact and experience, and inquire what improve- 
ment has already taken place on this very 
subject. Perhaps if fifty or sixty years ago 
some of these cold-hearted philosophers had 
been asked which would be abolished first, the 
Slave Trade, or War, they might have hesitated 
— both were under the patronage of governments, 
both could plead the prescription of antiquity, 
both seemed the interest of large and powerful 
bodies of men, and had nothing against them 
but reason and justice. They would have 
hesitated — and deemed it a choice between two 
impossibilities. And the Slave Trade is abo- 
lished, and its practice is felony.- — Two facts are 
cheering. 1. Peace now scarcely differs more 
from war, than modern warfare does from 
ancient. We see in barbarous states what war 
must have been originally. It is mere slaughter. 
No quarter is given. All advantages are taken. 
Among the New Zealanders, and Aboriginal 
Americans, there is nothing like the openness 
and honour of European conflict. To lie in 



182 



ON WAR, 



wait and rush unawares upon their prey ; to fire 
upon him from unsuspected ambush ; to steal in 
the dead of night, set fire to the huts, and 
massacre the inhabitants as they fly naked and 
defenceless from the flames ; these are their 
deeds of glory. In Greece and Rome the 
vanquished had only the alternative of death or 
slavery. What would be thought now of the 
insulting ceremony of leading princes and nobles 
through the streets, chained to a triumphal 
chariot, for the mob to gaze at — and then 
dismissing them to menial attendance on their 
victors ? The proportion of the numbers slain 
to those engaged, is trifling now, in comparison 
with the battles of antiquity ; to say nothing of 
wars of cold-blooded massacre, and complete 
extermination. The improvements in the art 
of war have pretty uniformly tended to make it 
more a matter of calculation and less of force 
and slaughter. Perhaps, too, the advance of 
physical science may lead to discoveries and 
inventions which will have an unexpected and 
happy influence. At first brute strength alone 
decided contests. Discipline took off part of 
its superiority ; and the use of gunpowder 
almost equalizes the weak with the strong. 
May not some future invention level the many 
with the few, or at least provide means of 
defence, which will baffle an immense supe- 
riority of numbers? Destructive machinery 



ON WAR. 



183 



seems peculiarly adapted for this purpose. The 
torpedo may be improved so as to protect the 
fishing boat from the man of war, and secure the 
coast from desolation. However we shudder at 
such instruments, they may, perhaps, be brought 
to an infernal perfection, which will serve the 
cause of humanity, by infinitely multiplying the 
perils of encroachment and attack. However 
this may be, it is obvious that there is more of 
mind in the conduct of war, and of humanity 
in its operations. Half the horrors of ancient 
warfare have vanished. ( n ) What is to stop the 
progress here ? 2. The tendencies of society 
have been, and are, to limit war, and conse- 
quently to abolish it ultimately. It cannot take 
place now in numerous situations where it used 
to rage. The formation of society stops indi- 
vidual hostilities. Private war, once so general 
and destructive, is abolished. In England once 
Baron warred upon Baron, and castle against 
castle hoisted the flag of defiance. Those com- 
bats have ceased, and for ever. What rivers of 
blood have Scotch and English shed in desperate 
struggles ! From all appearance, they have waged 
their last war with each other. Had the United 
States of America been, by different formation 
and circumstances, disunited kingdoms, or re^ 
publics, what incessant and bloody conflicts 
would have deluged that continent ! In this 
respect, die tendency of small states to coalesce 



184 



ON WAR. 



into larger, and of large ones to a sort of federal 
union, is auspicious to mankind. At present, 
all the great powers of Europe are in alliance : 
this may be only the coalition of governors. 
Supposing all those governors to become the 
faithful guardians of free nations, that union 
might remain — the arbiter of national disputes, 
the congress of peace and justice. 

The wide diffusion of knowledge and Chris- 
tianity, which we have already seen good reason 
to anticipate, and the hope of which will be 
further confirmed by considerations to which 
we shall hereafter advert, encourages us to argue 
from the manifest guilt and folly of wars to their 
disuse and abolition. Let but the great majority 
become enlightened, and although certain classes 
of society may still be interested in exciting ap- 
peals to the sword, there can be no want of 
means to prevent the sacrifice of the general 
good to their vanity, avarice or madness. Wars 
may be divided, according to their causes, into 
four principal classes : 

1 . Wars for disputed sovereignty. The crown 
of England was long contested by the two houses 
of York and Lancaster. An historian, speaking 
of the battle of Tewksbury, which seated Ed- 
ward IV. on the throne, says, " This was the 
twelfth battle that had been fought in this fatal 
quarrel ; and in these battles, and on the scaffold, 
above sixty princes of the royal family, above 



ON WAR. 



185 



one half of the nobles and principal gentlemen, 
and above one hundred thousand of the common 
people, lost their lives." And what followed ? 
The licentiousness of Edward, the usurpation of 
Richard, the grinding avarice of Henry VII., 
and the wanton tyranny of Henry VIII, Had 
the common people had common sense, would 
they not have left the houses, or the nobles, if 
they pleased, to fight it out themselves ? What 
to them was York or Lancaster ? The crown has 
since been bestowed more rationally ; not by 
divine right, ascertained in battle, but by Act 
of Parliament, in defiance of succession ; on 
William III., Anne, George I. and the house 
of Hanover, it was thus conferred. These 
scenes will never be reacted in this country. 
Their folly must be seen in all countries ; and 
when seen, however individuals or families might 
be wicked enough to aim at their revival, they 
would find that losing the opinions and preju- 
dices of the multitude, they had also lost the 
direction of their physical force. What a fine 
contrast to Yorkists, Lancastrians, Stuarts, 
Bourbons, and all the rest who " wade through 
slaughter to a throne," was Richard Cromwell ! 
He was advised to take off a seditious leader, 
and secure his father's elevation for himself. 
" No," said he, " I will not purchase authority 
at the price of one man's blood." (°) 
j- 2. Wars of conquest and usurpation. Such as 



186 



ON WAR. 



those of Edward III. and Henry V., in France, 
by which the peopie got nothing for their blood 
and treasure, but the pleasure of seeing the 
lilies in the royal arms. What conquest was 
ever worth its purchase ; even to any one ^ 
The only gain from them is to the pride of the 
monarch, and the avarice of the favourites, who 
may then acquire plunder. Will nations always 
sacrifice themselves for these; or for what is 
baser still, the gratification of commercial 
rapacity ? For trade now prompts to wars of 
encroachment and usurpation, as well as am- 
bition. 

3. Wars of passion, revenge and glory. To 
these, democracies are as liable as monarchies. 
They flow from that military spirit which leaders 
foster for their own purposes, till it sometimes 
becomes too strong for their direction. Defeat 
tarnishes the glory of a warlike people, and must 
be wiped off by victory. This was once the 
principle of private life. If one of a family or 
clan was murdered, it was necessary to retaliate, 
and obliterate the stain by another murder : but 
now the murderer only is disgraced, and imi. 
tation but involves in similar disgrace. Is this 
case too strong for information and Christianity ? 

4. Wars of religion. The most absurd and 
impious of all. Men have been in arms for 
idolatry and theism, the Turkish faith, and the 
(nominally) Christian faith, the Catholic religion 



ON WAR, 



187 



and the Protestant religion, and in the last war, 
for all sorts of religion against all sorts of infi- 
delity, Now to put down all this imposture, 
hypocrisy and blasphemy, it is only necessary 
that men should go from priests and statesmen 
to the New Testament to learn Christianity: 
they will soon find that it may be suffered for, 
but cannot be fought for. They will read of 
only one sword drawn in its defence, — and then 
Christ healed the wounded person, and rebuked 
Peter with, " they that use the sword shall 
perish by the sword." 

The opinion of the public in all countries must 
become more enlightened, and with that enlight- 
enment wars will become more rare and less 
bloody, till they gradually cease. Armies cannot 
be raised, or paid, in defiance of opinion. Would 
it be possible, in this country, to raise a corps 
of fifty thousand assassins ? With all the igno- 
rance and vice that exist, hired assassination has 
no existence here. It has yet in Italy, and did 
flourish there. Opinion makes the impossibility. 
Were the gospel generally understood, opinion 
would present as insuperable a barrier to raising 
fifty thousand, or one thousand hired soldiers. 
Peace then follows in the train of improvement, 

?' War is a game, which, were their subjects wise, 
Kings could not play at 

And wisdom is their destined portion. 



188 



ON WAR, 



The Slave Trade was abolished by the voice 
of humanity alone. Numbers were interested 
in its continuance, but nobody had any thing to 
gain by its cessation. If the evils of war were 
generally known and contemplated, surely they 
would not produce feebler horror at its enormi- 
ties, conviction of its guilt, or wishes and efforts 
for its abolition, than prevailed on that subject, 
It is an immense advantage that, when once the 
subject is properly understood, the pleadings of 
interest will join with those of humanity, pru- 
dence co-operate with conscience, and true 
policy second the views of benevolence and 
religion. To love peace, nations have only to 
learn their real interests. 

It is not to be imagined that violent exertions, 
sudden changes, or acts of legislation, will serve 
this great cause : they would only retard its 
success. Nor is it benefited by the strenuous 
assertion of abstract principles. That any nation 
should proclaim to the world that its differences 
shall be hereafter settled by negociation or me- 
diation, and not by arms, is not to be expected, 
and probably not to be desired. All that the 
friends of peace can do, or ought to attempt, is, 
on proper occasions, to state their opinions, and 
constantly to diffuse information. Europe is 
becoming one great public. A distaste with 
war, a disposition to examine more rigidly into 
its causes and effects, and a general preference 



ON WAR. 



189 



of other modes of deciding quarrels, will gra- 
dually and contemporaneously spring up and 
advance in all countries. Sovereigns, statesmen, 
generals, and also those classes of the commu- 
nity whose private interests are served at the 
expense of the public good, may be the last 
to partake of this improved feeling ; but long 
before it reaches their hearts, it will have suffi- 
cient influence to controul their measures. Re- 
ligion, so often in its corrupted state the occasion 
of discord and bloodshed, will attain its purity 
and power, and bring on the universal reign of 
the Prince of Peace. Christianity is incompa- 
tible with war, and Christianity is both designed 
and destined to extend to all nations. I do not 
see how the obvious inference from the pacific 
tendency of Christianity, and its unbounded 
prevalence, can be eluded. But if it could, our 
hopes would be unshaken ; for on this particular 
result from its progress, the prophets have be- 
stowed their richest imagery, nor does it seem 
easy to reconcile the notion that mankind shall 
always be subject to w T ar, with belief in, or 
fair interpretation of, the Jewish and Christian 
Scriptures. We gladly turn from it to prophecies 
such as these : " I will break the bow, and the 
sword, and the battle out of the earth, and will 
make them to lie down safely. — And I will have 
mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy ; 
and I will say to them which were not my 



ON WAR. 



people, Thou art my people ; and they shall say. 
Thou art my God." (Hosea ii. 18, 23.) " In the 
last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain 
of the house of the Lord shall be established in 
the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted 
above the hills ; and people shall flow unto it. 
And many nations shall come and say, Come 
and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, 
and to the house of the God of Jacob ; and he 
will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in 
his paths : for the law shall go forth of Zion, 
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, 
And he shall judge among many people, and 
rebuke strong nations afar off ; and they shall 
beat their swords into ploughshares, and their 
spears into pruning hooks ; nation shall not lift 
up sword against nation, neither shall they 
learn war any more ; but they shall sit, every 
man under his vine, and under his fig tree, and 
none shall make them afraid : for the mouth of 
the Lord of hosts hath spoken it." (Micah iv. 
1 — 4.) 46 The wolf also shall dwell with the 
lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the 
kid ; and the calf, and the young lion, and the 
fatling together, and a little child shall lead 
them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; 
their young ones shall lie down together: and 
the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the 
sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp ; 
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the 



ON WAR. 



191 



cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt or destroy 
in all my holy mountain : for the earth shall be 
full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters 
cover the sea." (Isaiah xi. 6 — 9.) The pre- 
diction of Isaiah, from which the text is taken ? 
closely corresponds with that of Micah, and 
these, with the rest, agree in asserting the dif- 
fusion of religious knowledge as the means, and 
the abolition of war as the result. Here, then, 
the argument rests on the authority of Scripture, 
of inspiration, of God. The general prospects 
of human improvement, to which your attention 
is next to be directed, are irradiated with light 
from heaven. The time shall come, when am- 
bition, avarice and false glory, shall no more lead 
forth their victims to merciless carnage ; nor 
enmities, jealousies and oppressions pour their 
vials of anguish on the world. The voice of 
Christian hope tells of past triumphs and future 
glories, speaking bliss to the inmost soul. We 
can exult in our nature and our destiny. We 
can look around on the earth, shake off the 
miserable associations of crime and misery, and 
trace on all things lines of benevolence and joy, 
The gladdening result which we anticipate is 
promised by the words of unerring prophecy, 
and shall be realized by the operations of an 
eternal and omnipotent Providence. The youth 
shall enter on a brighter world than his fore- 
fathers knew, and wonder at the blood-stained 



192 



ON WAR. 



tale of ancient days ; — while hoary age shall 
bow in holy resignation to the grave, exchanging 
earth for heaven, but as a transition from glory 
to glory, and exclaiming in devout gratitude, 
as memory reverts to the troublous scenes of 
childhood, " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant 
depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine 
eyes have seen thy salvation." 



I 



193 



} 




ix 



TO 



LECTURE VL 



The chapter on War and Military Establish- 
ments, in Paley's Moral Philosophy, is written 
in the same spirit as those on Crimes and Pun- 
ishments, and on Establishments and Tolera- 
tion; and excites the same painful and humbling 
emotions. It is impossible not to wish that 
they had been written by any body else ; or 
not written at all. Some observations on this 
chapter may usefully be introduced here, by 
way of proof, or illustration, of parts of the 
Lecture on War. 

" Because the Christian Scriptures describe 
wars, as what they are, as crimes or judgments, 
some have been led to believe that it is unlawful 
for a Christian to bear arms/' 

The inference does not appear very unrea- 
sonable. If wars be crimes, a Christian should 
keep himself unstained with the guilt, though 
enjoined by authority and participated by num- 
bers. If they be considered as judgments, it 



o 



194 APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 

should be remembered that he who goes about 
to execute a divine judgment should be able to 
produce a divine commission. The chastise- 
ment of the wicked is frequently assigned by 
Providence to others as wicked, and whose very 
depravity qualifies them for the task, for which 
better men are unfitted by their benevolence. 

It might be supposed from the expression, 
" Some have been led to believe," that the law- 
fulness of the military profession had only been 
denied by a few speculating or enthusiastic indi- 
viduals. The fact is, as will be shewn presently, 
that k was condemned by the almost unanimous 
voice of the whole Christian Church, for two 
or three centuries. 

" But it should be remembered, that it may 
be necessary for individuals to unite their force, 
and for this end to resign themselves to the di- 
rection of a common w r ill ; and yet, it may be 
true that that will is often actuated by criminal 
motives, and often determined to destructive 
purposes." 

What is this common will, to the guidance of 
which it may be supposed necessary for indivi- 
duals unconditionally to commit their powers ? 
The argument requires us to understand by it 
the will of governments, which we will suppose 
to coincide with that of the majority of the 
community. Whenever that will is determined 
to vicious purposes, Christian individuals are 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 19*5 

certainly forbidden to resign themselves to its 
direction, although they may forfeit its protection 
and become obnoxious to its vengeance. They 
must obey God rather than man. No advantage 
to be derived from union can compensate for 
doing, or assisting voluntarily in, that which is 
morallv wrono\ The argument for submission 
is valid for all violations of the divine law, or 
for none. If it justifies a soldier for drawing 
his sword in what he deems an unjust cause, it 
will also justify him in perpetrating any atrocity 
which his superiors may command. Bands of 
robbers are the only societies united on such a 
principle. 

" Hence, although the origin of wars be as- 
cribed in Scripture to the operation of lawless 
and malignant passion, and though war itself be 
enumerated among the sorest calamities with 
which a land can be visited, the profession of a 
soldier is nowhere forbidden or condemned." 

Dr. Paley here refers to James iv. 1. The' 
apostle's condemnation of war is addressed either 
to rulers or to subjects. If to the former, it 
should operate as a prohibition. If, as is most 
probable, to the latter, why should they be told 
that war was the result of lawless and malignant 
passions, unless to intimate that it was their 
duty not to aid in carrying into effect the dic- 
tates of such passions ? For not expressly for- 

o 2 



196 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



bidding, especially in writings or public speeches, 
the military profession, there might be very 
sufficient reasons, without supposing it com- 
patible with Christianity. Slavery has been 
nearly, and polygamy totally abolished, without 
any direct prohibition. ( p ) Christianity does not 
enjoin or recognize the essential virtues of the 
military character. It magnifies the passive 
courage of the martyr ; but the active valour of 
the hero has no place in its catalogue of virtues ; (i) 
nor does it ever enjoin the blind and prompt 
submission so necessary to constitute a good 
soldier. In the epistles we have ample state- 
ments of the duties of husbands, wives, parents, 
children, masters, servants, subjects ; but where 
shall we find the duties of a soldier ? And why 
do we not find them, if there were soldiers in 
Christian Churches ? Continual injunctions to 
love our enemies, to forgive injuries, not to 
retaliate, &c, are tantamount to the prohibition 
of a profession which appeals to very opposite 
principles. Besides, as " the important trans- 
actions of peace and war were prepared or 
concluded by solemn sacrifices, in which the 
magistrate, the senator and the soldier, were 
obliged to preside or to participate," as even the 
standards were objects of worship, the incon- 
sistency of engaging in idolatrous rites with 
Christianity would supersede the necessity of 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 197 

issuing direct prohibitions, which would only 
have increased the odium under which its pro- 
fessors laboured. 

" When the soldiers demanded of John the 
Baptist what they should do, he said unto them, 
4 Do violence to no man, neither accuse any 
falsely, and be content with your wages/ In 
which answer we do not find that, in order to 
prepare themselves for the reception of the king- 
dom of God, it was required of soldiers to relin- 
quish their profession, but only that they should 
beware of the vices of which that profession 
was accused. The precept which follows, 8 Be 
content with your wages/ supposed them to 
continue in their situation/' 

To this a reply may be borrowed from Barclay. 
( Apology ', Prop. 1,5, Sect. 15.) " The question 
is not concerning John's doctrine, but Christ's, 
whose disciples we are, not John's ; for Christ, 
and not John, is that prophet whom we all ought 
to hear. But what was John's answer, that we 
may see if it can justify the soldiers of this 
time ? Consider, then, what he dischargeth to 
soldiers, viz. not to use violence or deceit against 
any ; which being removed, let any one tell how 
soldiers can war. For are not craft, violence 
and injustice, three properties of war, and the 
natural consequences of battles ?" 

"It was of a Roman centurion that Christ 



198 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



pronounced that memorable eulogy, 6 I have 
not found so great faith, no, not in Israel/" 

The Jews generally besought Christ to touch 
them, that they might be healed. The centurion 
first expressed a conviction of his ability to work 
a miracle on a person at a distance. Our Lord's 
commendation of the centurion's faith by no 
means implies that he was engaged in no pursuit 
or profession, which the clearer light and milder 
spirit of Christianity would induce him to re- 
linquish. 

" The first Gentile convert who was received 
into the Christian Church, and to whom the 
gospel was imparted by the immediate and 
especial direction of heaven, held the same 
station ; and in the history of this transaction 
we discover not the smallest intimation, that 
Cornelius, upon becoming a Christian, quitted 
the service of the Roman legion ; that his pro- 
fession was objected to, or his continuance in 
it considered as in any wise inconsistent with 
his new character." 

If the narrative had begun, instead of ending, 
with the admission of Cornelius into the Chris- 
tian Church, there would have been some force 
in this observation. As it leads us not a step 
further than his conversion and baptism, there is 
none. Connecting this want of evidence in the 
historical part of the New Testament, with the 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



199 



total omission of moral precepts addressed to 
soldiers in the epistles, and with the fact that 
the early Christians frequently, if not universally, 
renounced the military profession, we cannot but 
form a very different conclusion from that which 
our author has deduced from the silence of the 
historian. Here closes his feeble and meagre 
array of evidence to prove the compatibility of 
the military profession with Christianity. 

The wars of the Jews are passed over in 
silence, and properly, because they are quite 
inapplicable as an example, though they have 
sometimes been forced into the discussion. If 
it be lawful for Christians to make war bemuse 
they did, it must also be lawful to make war 
as they did. This is happily impossible. The 
power that should attempt to repeat the frightful 
scenes of the conquest of Canaan, would soon 
be blotted out of the map of the world, by an 
universal combination of civilized states. Their 
example proves too much, or nothing. It justifies 
massacre, or it does not justify war. Besides, 
their battles were fought by an armed nation, for 
a national object, and not by a hired military 
under arbitrary controul ; and the will, to the 
direction of which they resigned themselves, is 
recorded to have been the will of God, miracu- 
lously expressed. If it be said that the Deity 
would not command what was morally wrong 9 
the objector is referred to the command for 



200 APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



Abraham to sacrifice his son ; and if this does 
not satisfy him, he may, if he so please, consult 
Dr. Geddes. 

Passing over Dr. Paley's statement of the 
difficulty of applying the principles of morality 
to the affairs of states, his supposed cases in 
which the faith of treaties may be violated, and 
his remarks on that pliable code, called the law 
of nations, we come to his considerations on the 
causes and conduct of wars. There can be no 
hesitation about admitting, that 64 the family 
alliances, the personal friendships, or the per- 
sonal quarrels of princes ; the internal disputes 
which are carried on in other nations ; the 
justice of other wars, the extension of territory 
or of trade ; the misfortunes or accidental weak- 
ness of a neighbouring or rival nation are 
" insufficient causes or unjustifiable motives of 
war." It is equally certain and deplorable, that 
these are the most usual sources of that dreadful 
calamity, and that they have caused the sacrifice 
of the lives of millions, and of the well-being 
and prospects of improvement of millions more. 
Great, indeed, and joyful would be the victory 
gained for mankind, could means be devised for 
averting in future their pestiferous operation. 

" The justifying causes of war are, deliberate 
invasions of right, and the necessity of main- 
taining such a balance of power amongst neigh- 
bouring nations, as that no single state, or 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



201 



confederacy of states, be strong enough to over- 
whelm the rest. The objects of just war are 
precaution, defence or reparation. In a larger 
sense, every just war is a defensive war, inasmuch 
as every just war supposes an injury perpetrated, 
attempted or feared." 
What a text is here ! 

War is justified by " deliberate invasions of 
right. 3 ' Of what right? Of whose right ; and 
who being judge? We need not look far back 
in history to meet with ample proof of the inex- 
pediency, and consequently of the wickedness 
and folly of asserting rights by war, whether they 
be rights of sovereign, subject, or parliament. 

In 1715 and 174o, Charles Stuart appealed to 
arms against what he deemed the " deliberate 
invasion of right," by the house of Hanover, in 
withholding from his father the British crown. 
The result was, that, after a considerable effusion 
of blood in the field and on the scaffold, the 
hopes of his family sunk for ever. 

In 1739, war was declared by this country 
against Spain, on account of " deliberate inva- 
sions of the right" of British subjects to navi- 
gate the American seas without being subject 
to search. A war with France was soon added 
to that with Spain, and when at length peace 
was concluded, in 1748, all conquests were 
restored, the original cause of hostility was not 



202 APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 

even mentioned, and all the fruits of the contest 
were " a dreadful expense of blood and treasure, 
disgrace upon disgrace, an additional load of 
grievous impositions, and the national debt ac- 
cumulated to (what Smollett calls) the enormous 
sum of eighty millions sterling." 

The Americans deliberately invaded " the 
right" of the British Parliament to tax them ; 
enforcing, this right involved the country in a 
bloody conflict, — in a war with Spain, France 
and Holland, — in a debt of more than one hun- 
dred and ten millions sterling ; lost us the 
colonies altogether, and excited in them a hostile 
spirit fraught with evils, which have been ever 
since and will long be felt. 

Had the belligerent party in each of these 
cases submitted his or their claims to the de- 
cision of any impartial, or even any hostile, 
court, or man, or body of men, could the award 
have possibly been so unfavourable as the event 
of the contest proved ? But, it may be said, 
they were the agressors. Not perhaps, in the 
second case ; but, be it so. They were still 
more wrong in waging war. And when 44 in- 
vasions of right" are assigned as a justifying 
cause of war, 44 right," in the estimation of the 
attacker, not in that of the attacked, or of a 
third party, is of course understood. It is plain, 
therefore, that all 44 invasions of right," even 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



203 



what are impartially and correctly so called, are 
not "justifying causes of war y whether any are, 
shall be considered presently. 

The other vindication is " the necessity of 
preserving such a balance of power amongst 
neighbouring nations, as that no single state, or 
confederacy of states, be strong enough to over- 
whelm the rest." 

That is to say, It is just to attack and desolate 
a neighbouring country, because its inhabitants 
are more prosperous, and consequently becom- 
ing more powerful, than we are. O Christian ! 
Christian! when you forget the principles of 
your Master, how easily may an infidel put you 
down ! Montesquieu has advanced the same 
position, (De V Esprit des LoLv, Liv. x. Ch. ii.) 
which is thus commented on by Voltaire : 

64 Voici ce que dit Montesquieu. 

44 4 Entre les societes le droit de la defense 
naturelle entraine quelquefois la necessite d* ata- 
quer, lorsqu" un peuple voit qu* une plus longue 
paix en mettrait un autre en etat de le detruire, 
et que F ataque est dans ce moment le seul 
moyen d' empecher cette destruction/ 

44 Comment Y ataque en pleine paix peut-elle 
etre le seul moyen d' empecher cette destruction ? 
U faut done que vous soyez sur que ce voisin 
vous detruira § il devient puissant. Pour en 
etre sur, il faut qu' il ait fait deja des preparatifs 
de votre perte. En ce cas c' est lui qui com- 



204 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



mence la guerre, ce n' est pas vous ; votre supo- 
sition est fausse et contradictoire. S* il y eut 
jamais une guerre evidemment injuste, c' est 
celle que vous proposez ; c* est d' aller tuer votre 
prochain, de peur que votre prochain (qui ne 
vous ataque pas) ne soit en etat de vous ataquer. 

44 C* est-a-dire, qu* il faut que vous hazardiez 
de ruiner le pays dans Y esperance de miner sans 
raison celui d' un autre. Cela n' est assurement 
ni honnete, ni utile, car on n* est jamais sur du 
succes; vous le savez bien. 

44 Si votre voisin devient trop puissant pendant 
la paix, qui vous empeche de vous rendre 
puissant comme lui ? S* il a fait des alliances, 
faites-en de votre cote. Si ayant moins de 
religieux, il en a plus de manufacturiers et de 
soldats, imitez-le dans cette sage economic 
S' il exerce mieux ses matelots, exercez les 
votres ; tout cela est tres juste. Mais d'exposer 
votre peuple a la plus horrible misere, dans F 
idee si souvent chimerique d* accabler votre cher 
frere le serenissime prince limitrophe ! Ce 
n* etait pas a un president honoraire d' une 
compagnie pacifique a vous donner un tel 
conseil." ( r ) 

Nor for a professor of moral philosophy and 
archdeacon of a Christian Church, either. 
History is full of the mischiefs and sufferings 
which have accrued to this country by her 
attempts to 44 trim the balance of Europe but 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



205 



where shall we find the record of the good 
which has resulted either to herself, or other 
nations ? What might not have been accom- 
plished by the appropriation of half the means 
thus wasted, to the purposes of internal strength 
and prosperity ? 

14 The objects of just war are, precaution, 
defence or reparation 

It would not be thought a very just " pre- 
caution/' though undoubtedly it would be an 
effectual one, to hang a man of bad character 
because he was suspected of an inclination to 
become a housebreaker. An additional bolt, or 
guard, would be very reasonable in such a case. 
Attack, as a precaution against attack, is crime 
for the prevention of crime. It is incurring 
a certain, to avoid a contingent, evil ; and when 
that certain evil is so immense and undefined as 
war must always be, it becomes difficult, if not 
impossible, to assign the mischief against which 
it is wise and right to have recourse to such 
a precaution. And what sort of " reparation" 
has war ever afforded ? None, consistent with 
justice, in any instance which I can recollect. 
The injury is usually offered by one party, the 
reparation exacted from another, and that repa- 
ration is obtained and overbalanced by the 
labours and sufferings of a third. A king of 
England seizes on some provinces subject to the 
king of France : here is the injury. The king 



206 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



of France recovers the dominion of those pro- 
vinces : this is reparation. But this reparation 
is procured by a long series of bloody wars, 
between the two nations, who had no part in 
the quarrel, and nothing to gain or lose by its 
decision, and who are alternately attacked at 
the command of either monarch, merely because 
they had the misfortune to be subject to his 
rival ; and as much treasure is expended in the 
contest as might have purchased the two 
countries, and as many persons destroyed as 
might have peopled them. Rarely does it 
happen that a war of reparation, even though 
successful, is not infinitely worse than any 
injury. 

But, defence— and " in a larger sense, every 
just war is a defensive war, inasmuch as every 
just war supposes an injury perpetrated, at- 
tempted or feared." 

" It is common," observes a writer already 
quoted, 44 to make a distinction between offen- 
sive and defensive war. No one vindicates the 
first, and almost every one the latter. Now I 
do imagine that if the question — what is 
defensive war, could be fairly and satisfactorily 
settled, it would at once put an end to all 
controversy upon the practicability of abolishing 
war. Yet here lies the difficulty: what is it 
we are called upon to defend? Sometimes our 
honour is attacked, or threatened, or may be 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



207 



attacked. Sometimes there is an interference 
with our trade, and our commerce is interrupted 
or loaded with difficulties. Sometimes our 
peculiar political views are thwarted or contra- 
dicted. According to men's feelings and their 
peculiar interest, a war is or is not considered 
by them as purely defensive.— Then again, the 
affairs of nations are so complicated, that what 
appears to some persons as immediately and 
directly offensive war, may in the views of 
others he regarded as remotely and ultimately 
defensive. Yet, even in the strictest defensive 
wars, how little is really defended which can be 
protected by the sword ? When William invaded 
England, from Normandy, in consequence of 
the refusal of the English to recognize his 
title to the succession, it is very easy to imagine 
that Harold said a number of fine things to the 
tools of his ambition, and William as manv to 
his. Yet it is not easy perhaps, to say, how 
much the real agents gained by their victory, 
nor to calculate under what disadvantage each 
party would have laboured, had they wisely 
refused to draw a sword in the quarrel. It is 
difficult to say what, under such circumstances, 
would have been the wisest course for the 
active mass to pursue. Fighting on either part 
was not the best: for, look at the result on either 
side, a tremendous slaughter, and the remnant 
of the victorious party, the great multitude 



208 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



quite as much in slavery as before. I may be 
asked here if I recommend unqualified and tame 
submission to an invader? Certainly not: but 
here was a different question: the English were 
not then, as they now are, a free people : they 
fought against one tyrant for the sake of another, 
and gave a specimen how much men may be 
deceived by specious names. The English did 
not fight for any thing truly valuable. I do 
think it may be proved, that even in this case, 
they could have done better for themselves by 
refusing to fight and having recourse to nego- 
ciation. This invasion of William seems 
almost an extreme case, yet even he might 
make something of a plea in his favour; he 
might assert that his right ought not to be 
tamely yielded to an usurper, and that the 
English nation were opposing his just claims, 
and therefore, that his loyal subjects were bound 
to resist rebels to his authority. 39 (Scargill's 
Essays on various Subjects^ pp. 164 — 167.) 

Defensive war is a solecism. The terms 
ought never to have been combined. They 
mean, if any thing, defensive offence. To 
resistance, in extreme cases armed resistance, 
of attacks upon liberty or life, no valid objection 
can be urged. Man has a natural right, 
unrepealed by revelation, to repel force by force. 
To call this war, is confounding two very 
different things under the same name. A 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



209 



licence to attack, is essential to war. It autho- 
rizes violence towards all belonging to the same 
nation as the aggressors. When a free country 
is invaded, let every citizen arm and fight, 
till the invaders be repelled. But to plunder a 
merchant of his property, to lay a town in ashes, 
to conquer an island, because that merchant, 
town, or island, have a nominal and involuntary 
connexion with the invaders, is to become 
aggressors equally with them, and to avenge the 
wrongs of the guilty on the heads of the 
innocent. What can be more absurd and unjust 
than for a French army to ravage India, because 
an English army had desolated France ? Injus- 
tice cannot sanctify injustice, nor one crime 
be the justification of another. The readiest 
means of repelling an assault upon one unof- 
fending party may seem to be their assaulting 
another unoffending party ; but the readiest 
means of compassing a lawful object is very 
often not lawful in itself. If to " do evil that 
good may come" be iniquitous in one man, 
it cannot be right in millions of men combined 
in national union. 

Paley recovers his natural tone, and writes 
like what he really was at heart, the friend of 
man, when he proceeds to enforce on the attention 
of rulers " two lessons of rational and sober 
policy first, " to place their glory and their 
emulation, not in extent of territory, but in 

p 



210 



APPENDIX TO 



LECTURE VI. 



raising the greatest quantity of happiness out of 
a given territory: and secondly, never to pursue 
national honour, as distinct from national inte- 
rest?' To his concession that it may be 
necessary to assert the honour of a nation, by 
war, the remarks of Godwin on the same 
subject may be satisfactorily opposed. " True 
honour is to be found only in integrity and 
justice. It has been doubted, how far a view 
to reputation ought, in matters of inferior 
moment, to be permitted to influence the 
conduct of individuals; but let the case of 
individuals be decided as it may, reputation 
considered as a separate motive in the instance 
of nations, can perhaps never be justifiable. In 
individuals, it seems as if I might, consistently 
with the utmost real integrity, be so miscon- 
strued, as to render my efforts at usefulness 
almost necessarily abortive. But this reason 
does not apply to the case of nations. Their 
real story cannot easily be suppressed. Useful- 
ness and public spirit, in relation to them, 
chiefly belong to the transactions of their 
members among themselves ; and their influ- 
ence in the transactions of neighbouring nations, 
is a consideration evidently subordinate." (Po- 
litical Justice, B. v. Ch. xvi.) That the real 
story of nations cannot be suppressed, is an 
argument not only against reputation as a 
separate motive, which Paley also seems to 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 211 

condemn, but also against the assumption that 
national interest can ever require the hostile 
assertion of national honour. 

" If the cause and end of war be justifiable ; 
all the means that appear necessary to the end 
are justifiable also." 

This is horrible ; and it is extraordinary that 
the consequences of his principle did not lead 
Paley to question its validity, and operate as a 
reductio ad absurdum, or rather as a reductio ad 
nefandum. Every species of fraud and violence 
which can tend to weaken a rival nation is 
thus justified. The vindication includes many 
barbarities which the progress of information 
and benevolent feeling has abolished ; but 
which, after all, have as good an excuse as the 
practices which are still retained. Thus it is 
allowed that, " if it be lawful to kill an enemy 
at all, it seems lawful to do so by one mode of 
death as well as by another ; by a dose of 
poison, as by the point of a sword ; by the hand 
of an assassin, as by the attack of an army : for, 
if it be said that one species of assault leaves to 
an enemy the power of defending himself 
against it, and that the other does not ; it may 
be answered, that we possess at least the same 
right to cut off an enemy's defence, that we 
have to seek his destruction, In this manner 
might the question be debated, if there existed 
no rule or law of war upon the subject/ 3 And 

p 2 



212 



APPENDIX TO 



LECTURE VI. 



what are laws of war, but restrictions imposed 
on the furious passions of combatants by the 
increasing benevolence of mankind, which thus 
marks its advance, and will finally prevail ? 
Public opinion is the only sanction of the laws 
of war; and is not always an effectual one. 
Every article of Paley's list of ultimate and 
gratuitous mischiefs, to which the licence of 
war does not extend, might be illustrated by 
instances which occurred in the late contest, 
and probably in every contest. 

If war be unjustifiable, and armed resistance 
only allowable for the single and immediate 
object of repulsing an armed attack, the question 
concerning the military profession and standing 
armies, is brought into a very narrow compass. 
They are much more adapted for attack and 
conquest, than for defence, and are the swords, 
but not the shields of nations. 

Paley contends that a standing army is a 
" more effectual" and " a cheaper method of 
providing for the public safety than any other, 
because it adds more than any other to the 
common strength, and takes less from that 
which composes the wealth of a nation, its stock 
of productive industry." 

Let the question of expense be fairly stated. 
Without hired soldiers, and only appealing to 
arms for defence, in the proper sense of the 
word, it may be necessary for a country " to 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



213 



call the reaper from the fields in harvest, or the 
ploughman in seed time but there will not 
be a permanent class of wasteful and unproduc- 
tive consumers ; nothing will be lavished for 
purposes of aggression and conquest, by which 
when most successful, whoever gains, the 
people are losers ; and the infrequency of 
unprovoked invasion must be contrasted with 
continual w r ars and their entailed burdens and 
miseries. 

That " nothing but a standing army can 
oppose a standing army, where the numbers 
on each side bear any moderate proportion to 
one another," may be true of quarrels in which 
the people have nothing at stake ; but discipline 
and experience have repeatedly been found to 
be no match for that moral courage which 
springs from the conviction of justice, the love 
of liberty, and the preference of death to the 
relinquishment of what God has given to make 
life valuable. These principles gave the par- 
liamentary troops such superiority in the contest 
with Charles I. " The battle of Nasebv," 
observes Fletcher, ( s ) 4 ■ will be a farther illus- 
tration of this matter, which is generally 7 thought 
to have been the deciding action of the late civil 
war. The number of forces was equal on both 
sides ; nor was there any advantage in the 
ground, or extraordinary accident that happened 
during the fight, which could be of considerable 



214 APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



importance to either. In the army of the 
parliament, nine only of the officers had served 
abroad, and most of the soldiers were prentices 
drawn out of London but two months before. 
In the king's army there were above a thousand 
officers that had served in foreign parts: yet 
was that army routed and broken by those 
new-raised prentices ; who were observed to be 
obedient to command, and brave in fight ; not 
only in that action, but on all occasions during 
that active campaign ;> — and though officers 
seem to stand in more need of experience than 
private soldiers, yet in that battle it was seen, 
that the sobriety and principle of the officers on 
the one side, prevailed over the experience of 
those on the other/' Many similar instances 
may be found in history. And the force of 
native talent in uneducated and inexperienced 
officers, and of republican enthusiasm in raw 
troops, which so signally baffled the most 
accomplished generals and choicest veterans of 
Europe, at the commencement of the revolu- 
tionary war with France, will probably present 
itself to the minds of most of my readers. 

There are few cases in which an invaded 
country, whose inhabitants possess any thing 
worth defending, may not bring into the field 
a great superiority of numbers. For this reason, 
Machiavel decides that " the prince whose 
people are in a posture and provided for war, 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 915 



does wisely if he expects a potent and dangerous 
enemy at home, rather than invade him in his 
own country." He adduces, in illustration, the 
following examples amongst others : " The 
Athenians, whilst they kept themselves upon 
the defensive part, and expected their enemies 
at home, were always victorious ; but when 
they began to make war at a distance, and send 
armies into Sicily, they lost their liberty, and 
every thing else. I do not remember any 
foreign expedition by the Romans for the 
conquest of any province, in which their army 
exceeded the number of 50,000. But upon the 
invasion of the Gauls, after the first Punic war, 
they brought 118,000 men into the field for 
their defence. The Swizzers may without 
much difficulty be overpowered abroad, because 
they seldom march above 30,000 or 40,000 
strong ; but to attack and beat them at home 
is much more difficult, where they can bring 
into the field 100,000 and more." ( Discourses 
on Livy, B. ii. Ch. xii.) 

An armed people being " utterly incapable of 
carrying their operations into a foreign country," 
is not therefore so decided a disadvantage as 
Paley seems to suppose. Indeed, where should 
a man fight for his country, but in his country > 
Have we not had enough of English fighting 
for their country in India, French in Egypt, 
Italians in Russia, and Russians in France ? 



216 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



How much of farce there is in the bloodiest 
tragedies! But, Colonies? Very true ; on the 
principles I have advocated they could be neither 
conquered, governed, nor defended ; and must 
learn to govern and defend themselves, or asso- 
ciate with their neighbours. Nor would this be 
the greatest evil imaginable. Britain has been 
abundantly wealthier by the loss of that domi- 
nion over America, which she struggled so 
sturdily to retain. And according to one of 
our ablest political economists, (Dr. Purves,) 
" this affords a most useful lesson to Spain. 
Were her governors acquainted with the real 
principles of population, and of the production 
of wealth, and had they the courage to act upon 
them, they would at once declare their South 
American colonies independent, and cultivate 
a new connexion with them as commercial 
allies." 

Fletcher of Saltoun, in his masterly " Dis- 
course of Government with relation to Militias," 
maintains that unless all the people be accus- 
tomed to the use of arms, freedom cannot exist ; 
and Paley contends, that if they be so accus- 
tomed, no government can stand : Fletcher, that 
if the power of the sword be entrusted to the 
sovereign, nothing of liberty can remain but 
the form ; and Paley, that if it be not entrusted 
to him, nothing of royalty would be left but the 
name and expense. On these topics I shall not 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



217 



enter, except just to remark, that wars for liberty 
have very often ended miserably. Wars require 
armies, and armies lead to despotism. When a 
people understand freedom, and are ripe for its 
enjoyment, they can generally discover a better 
and surer road to its attainment than by fighting 
for it; while insurgent slaves only prepare for 
themselves a heavier yoke. There is much truth 
in an expression, to which something of ridicule 
is now attached, that, 44 for a nation to be free, 
it is sufficient that she wills it." The peaceable, 
enlightened, persevering pursuit of just rights 
must be successful. There may be martyrdom 
in its course, but there cannot be slavery at its 
termination. An appeal to the sword commonly 
either strengthens an old despotism, or produces 
a new one. 

The affinity between standing armies and 
despotism is noticed by Paley, at the conclusion 
of the chapter on which these remarks are ha- 
zarded ; but he has altogether passed over the 
demoralizing consequences of making war a 
profession and a trade, except in the merely 
incidental remark that " the profession of a 
soldier almost always unfits men for the business 
of regular occupations. " By other writers on 
the subject they have been made more promi- 
nent. Fletcher says of mercenary troops, 44 Most 
men that enter into those armies, whether officers 
or soldiers, as if they were obliged to shew them- 



218 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



selves new creatures, and perfectly regenerate, 
if before they were modest or sober, immediately 
turn themselves to all manner of debauchery and 
wickedness, committing all kinds of injustice and 
barbarity against poor and defenceless people." 
Machiavel has a remarkable condemnation of 
the military profession : " War being a profes- 
sion by which men cannot live honourably at 
all times, it is not to be taken up as a trade, 
unless it be by a commonwealth or a kingdom ; 
and if they be well constituted, they will neither 
of them suffer any of their citizens or subjects, 
or any other good man to make it his business ; 
for he will never be thought a good man who 
takes upon him an employment by which, if he 
would reap any profit at any time, he is obliged 
to be false and rapacious and cruel, and to en- 
tertain several other qualities that are not con- 
sistent in a good man ; nor can any man, great 
or small, who makes war his profession, be 
otherwise than vicious ; — have you not a pro- 
verb which confirms what I say, and tells us 
that war makes thieves, and peace brings them 
to the gallows?" (Art of War, Ch. ii.) He 
then adduces the example of Rome, which, 
cc whilst it was well governed (which was till 
the time of the Gracchi) had never any soldier 
who made it his profession to be so, by which 
means few of them were dissolute." They 
had afterwards, and then came the corruption 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



219 



of their manners, and the extinction of their 
liberties. 

What man can escape untainted from long 
familiarity with stratagem, falsehood, bloodshed 
and plunder ? Melancholy proof might be given 
of their brutalizing influence upon men of edu- 
cation, rank and humanity ; what then must it 
be upon the ignorant, young, necessitous and 
worthless, who fill the ranks of armies ? There 
are, doubtless, in the army, many men of ex- 
cellent character, extensive benevolence and real 
piety. I have known such. I am sorry that it 
should be so ; because the strict consistency of 
Christians on the subject of war, is the first step 
towards its abolition. 

Long, very long will it probably be, before 
the world arrives at a consummation so devoutly 
to be wished ; and a firm trust in the truth of 
prophecy and the omnipotence of Providence, 
can alone preserve us from doubting or despairing 
of its arrival. Opposing interests, false notions 
of glory, the turbulence of an^bition, and a thou- 
sand formidable obstacles preclude all hope of 
its speedy approach. Meanwhile, there is some 
gratification in observing, that the testimony 
borne against this evil has been especially con- 
nected with the purer forms of religion, and 
will, therefore, gather strength in proportion to 
the predicted revival and diffusion of genuine 
Christianity. 



220 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



Neither Jews nor Christians could serve in 
the Roman legions without incurring the guilt 
of idolatry. The frequent sacrifices at which 
all were bound to assist, the homage paid to the 
standards, the military oath, which was renewed 
every year, all were idolatrous. Hence, before 
the time of Christ, the Jews only acted as 
auxiliaries to the Romans, under their own 
officers ; and they procured from Julius Caesar 
an exemption from serving in the wars. But 
the objections of some of them were not only 
to idolatry, but to war itself. Philo says of the 
Esseans, " None among them can be found that 
manufactures darts, arrows, swords, breastplates, 
or even such weapons as might be converted to 
bad " purposes in time of peace; much less do 
they engage in any of those arts which are useful 
in war." The Esseans generally became Chris- 
tians ; (see Jones's Ecclesiastical Researches ;) 
and their pacific principles, sanctioned as they 
were by the language of Christ, (Matthew v. 38, 
&c.,) were adopted and adhered to generally by 
the Christians for upwards of two centuries, 
being only abandoned by the same gradation 
that truth, simplicity and purity were aban- 
doned also. Of this there is satisfactory evi- 
dence. 

Justin Martyr declares, " We fight not with 
our enemies/' ascribes war, without distinction, 
to the instigation of the devil, and considers the 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



S2.1 



prophecy of Isaiah (ii. 4) as accomplished in 
its renunciation by the Christians of his day. 

Irenaeus gives the same literal interpretation 
of that prophecy, and expresses the same notion 
of its being then fulfilled. " Jam nesciunt 
pugnare." 

Tatian intimates plainly his opinion concern- 
ing the unlawfulness of war, and contrasts sol- 
diers and Christians as in all respects opposite. 

Tertullian condemns serving in the army; but 
" in his time, (the third century,) if not before, 
there were some Christian soldiers, and it is 
hard to conceive how they could maintain their 
innocence in that station, and avoid such dissi- 
mulation, and such practices as were scarcely 
allowable. It is to be supposed that the Chris- 
tians kept out of the army as much as they 
could." — Jortin. 

Clemens Alexandrinus allows that it might 
be lawful for a Christian to serve, if, when he 
was converted to Christianity, he was a soldier ; 
and enjoins on such converts obedience to the 
just commands of their superiors. 

These must have been comparatively rare 
instances, for afterwards, Celsus charges the 
Christians with refusing to bear arms for the 
emperor, and tells them, that if all were of their 
opinion, the empire would soon be overrun by 
the barbarians. Origen, in replying, allows the 
truth of the accusation. 



222 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



Even in the legend of the Thundering Legion, 
the Christians are not represented as serving 
Antoninus by their arms, but by their prayers. 

In the fourth century, Lactantius declares 
expressly against Christians being in the army ; 
and Epiphanius mentions a sect of heretics 
called zpoLTiwTixoi, or military, (as there is now 
in America a sect of 64 fighting Quakers,") of 
whom nothing is known but the name, which is 
reasonably supposed to have been a term of 
reproach, fastened on them by other Christians, 
for their serving, or holding it lawful to serve in 
the armies. 

Tarachus, the martyr, says in his examination, 
" When I was a soldier, I was called Victor ; — 
because I was a Christian, I renounced the 
service." 

Lardner remarks on a work ascribed to Ar- 
Chelaus, a bishop of Mesopotamia, apparently 
written in the fourth century, and whose author 
" speaks more like an Unitarian than a Catholic," 
that he seems to have condemned all war as un- 
lawful ; for, relating that some Roman soldiers, 
charmed with the piety and generosity of Mar- 
cellus, were induced to embrace the Christian 
religion, he says that " they immediately forsook 
the profession of arms." 

The reader may find much interesting matter 
on this subject in Moyle's " Letters concerning 
the Thundering Legion," who, after citing Athe- 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



223 



nagoras, Minucius Felix, Irenaeus, Tatian, &c, 
observes, 66 All these authors do directly, or in 
consequence, deny the lawfulness of war; and 
not only represent it as their own private opi- 
nion, but as agreeable to the universal belief 
and practice of that age. And I do not see 
w T hat can be reasonably opposed to the authority 
of every individual writer of the second century, 
who wrote near the age of Antoninus." 

Through what has been aptly termed the mil- 
lenium of the powers of darkness, those who 
were called Christians indulged plentifully in 
deeds of blood and desolation. Yet, even here 
sometimes a faint flash darts across the gloom. 
A synod held in England under William the 
Conqueror, declared that those who fought only 
for hopes of a reward, ought to do penance as 
for murder ; following, probably, the decision of 
St. Augustin, " Militare non est delictum, sed 
propter praedam militare peccatum est." 

With the first symptoms of dissent from the 
corruptions of the Church of Rome, was coupled 
a protest against the iniquity of war. The Pa- 
terines, or Gazari, the Puritans of Italy in the 
eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries, kept 
alive the cause of truth, liberty and benevolence. 
Many of them were Antitrinitarians, but they 
allowed great diversity of opinions, and held 
that a church had no power to frame any con- 
stitutions ; that it was not right to take oaths ; 



224 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



that the benefits of society belonged alike to all 
the members of it ; that it was not lawful to 
bear arms, or to kill mankind. 

To these succeeded other heralds of the Re- 
formation, who, under the names of Waldenses, 
Albigenses, &c, were scattered over a great part 
of Europe, and of whom the following account 
is given by Robinson: "Authentic records in 
France assure us that a people of a certain 
description were driven from thence in the 
twelfth century. Bohemian records, of equal 
authenticity, inform us, that some of the same 
description arrived in Bohemia at the same time, 
and settled near a hundred miles from Prague? 
at Satz and Lann, on the river Eger, just on the 
borders of the kingdom. Almost two hundred 
years after, another undoubted record of the 
same country mentions a people of the same 
description, some as burnt at Prague, and others 
as inhabiting the borders of the kingdom ; and 
a hundred and fifty years after that, we find a 
people of the same description settled by con- 
nivance in the metropolis, and in several other 
parts of the kingdom. About one hundred and 
twenty years lower, w T e find a people in the same 
country, living under the protection of law on 
the estate of Prince Lichtenstein, exactly like 
all the former, and about thirty or forty thousand 
in number. The religious character of this 
people is so very different from that of all others, 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 22,5 



that the likeness is not easily mistaken. They 
had no priests, but taught one another. They 
had no private property, for they held all things 
jointly. They executed no offices, and neither 
exacted nor took oaths. Then bore no arms, and 
rather chose to suffer than resist wrong. They 
held every thing: called religion in the Church 
of Rome in abhorrence, and worshipped God 
only by adoring his perfections, and endeavouring 
to imitate his goodness. They thought Chris- 
tianity wanted no comment, and they professed 
the belief of that by being baptized, and their 
love to Christ and one another by receiving the 
Lord's Supper. They aspired at neither wealth 
nor power, and their plan was industry. We 
have shewn how highly probable it is that Bo- 
hemia afforded them work, wages, and a secure 
asylum, which was all they wanted. If these 
be facts, they are facts that do honour to human 
nature ; they exhibit in the great picture of the 
world a few small figures in a back ground, un- 
stained with the blood, and unruffled with the 
disputes, of their fellow-creatures. It was their 
wisdom in their times not to come forward to 
deliver apologies to the world, and creeds, with 
flattering prefaces, to princes ; the turbulence of 
the crowd would have caused the still voice of 
reason not to be heard." {Ecclesiastical Re- 
searches, p. 527.) 

Some of this class, probably from Flanders or 

Q 



226 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



Germany, where they had obtained the name of 
Lollards, came to England, and their tenets on 
the subject of war were adopted by the great 
and venerable Wickliffe. " He seems/' says 
Priestley, " to have thought it wrong to take 
away the life of man on any account, and that 
war was utterly unlawful, and much more, war 
in the name of religion, such as the Popes pro- 
moted during the great schism. 6 When,' he 
said, 4 will the proud priest of Rome grant 
indulgences to mankind to live in peace and 
charity, as he now does to fight and kill one 
another V" 

At the time of the Reformation, the leaders 
of the Polish Unitarians, both Arian and Soci- 
nian, ranged themselves on the side of humanity, 
declaring against both war and capital punish- 
ments, and objecting to fill the office of magis- 
trate, on account of the oaths required, and 
because it might involve the necessity of bearing 
arms and shedding blood. " These notions of 
the morality of the gospel would not suffer the 
judge Niemoiovius, though a nobleman, to 
continue on the bench, and he resigned his 
office." There were some differences of opinion 
amongst them on these subjects ; but while 
many held the unlawfulness of war altogether, 
none seem to have conceded more than that arms 
might be resorted to in self-defence, according 
to the very strictest interpretation of that ex- 



APPENDIX 



TO LECTURE VI. 



227 



pression. Thus far, the continental Socinians 
were generally agreed. Ruarus, of Amsterdam, 
alluding to the difficulty arising from the pre- 
valence of wars and capital punishments, remarks, 
that it was harder for a Christian to fill the office 
of a magistrate, especially of a chief magistrate, 
than " for a rich man to enter into the kingdom 
of heaven." 

Cheynell, the antagonist of Chillingworth, 
and one of the Westminster Assembly of Di- 
vines, deemed such principles not worthy of 
toleration. " Socinians are not to be suffered 
in any state, for they will not shew any obedi- 
ence or respect to magistrates ; they say they 
have no power to punish heinous offenders in 
time of peace, nor have they power to defend 
themselves, or the people, in time of war. But 
especially they charge the magistrates to beware 
how they meddle with good honest heretics/' 
He afterwards accuses both them and the Ana- 
baptists of inconsistent conduct in the civil 
war. " It is commonly said that they (the 
Anabaptists) have lately taken up arms in re- 
bellion against the king. I must confess, I have 
wondered often when I have heard of this daily 
complaint, because I know that an x\nabaptist 
doth not think it lawful to be a cutler: he thinks 
no sword ought to be made, because he conceives 
it unlawful to use a sword. It is w r ell known 
that the Anabaptists go to sea without any 

q 2 



228 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



ordnance in their ships, that they travel without 
any sword by their side; but if there be any 
fighting Anabaptists in these days, I suppose 
the English Socinians have taught the English 
Anabaptists to deny those principles in practice 
which they maintain in dispute/' Ascham, 
(who was ambassador from the Commonwealth 
to Spain, and assassinated by some English 
royalists at Madrid,) contending for the lawful- 
ness of war against " Slichtingius and the rest 
of his (Socinian) tribe," speaks more honourably 
of his opponents. " Whilst all the Christian 
world is embroiled in war, and that the very 
state of mankind is nothing else but status belli; 
yet not a few perhaps of the best Christians 
find their consciences checked, as if they had 
an interdict from heaven, restraining them (even 
in the extremest necessities) from defending 
their persons and temporal rights by the effusion 
of human blood. They conceive such an ex- 
actness of Christian patience and charity is now 
required of us in regard of those excellent pro- 
mises of reigning with Christ in heaven, that 
all sort of war fights now against him and his 
religion. This made an eminent statesman, 
pleading for toleration of religion in France, say, 
Qu* il valoit mieux avoir une paix ou il y 
avoient deux religions, qu' une guerre ou il n* y 
en avoit point ; — that it was better to have a 
peace with two religions, than a war with none 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



229 



at-^all. These Christians, of whom we now 
speak, assure themselves, that if they wallow in 
one another's blood here, they cannot afterwards 
tumble together in Abraham s bosom " For a very 
curious and interesting account of Cheynell's 
" Rise, Growth and Danger of Socinianisme," 
and Ascham's t; Confusions and Revolutions of 
Governments," from which these extracts are 
taken, see Monthly Repository for 1815, pp. 81, 
431, &c. 

Many of the continental Anabaptists shewed 
no want of a disposition for turbulence and 
bloodshed; but the pacific principles of their 
founders were always cherished by others of the 
party, and have been preserved by their descen- 
dants, the Mennonites, or Unitarian Baptists, of 
Germany, Russia and Holland. 

We must not omit an honourable mention 
of others who, though adopting the military 
profession, have held out against the common 
maxim that they had nothing to do with the 
justice of the cause for which their swords were 
drawn. Many of the Independents in Crom- 
well's army threw up their commissions rather 
than serve in the war which he commenced, in 
their opinion so wantonly, against Spain, by the 
seizure of Jamaica. Algernon Sidney argues 
this point very conclusively against Filmer: 
44 His second instance concerning wars, in which 
he says, the subject is not to examine whether 



230 APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 

they are just or unjust, but must obey, is weak 
and frivolous, and very often false. Though 
God may be merciful to a soldier, who by the 
wickedness of a magistrate, whom he honestly 
trusts, is made a minister of injustice, it is 
nothing to this case. For if our author say 
true, that the word of a king can justify him in 
going against the command of God, he must do 
what is commanded, though he think it evil ; 
the Christian soldiers under the Pagan emperors 
were obliged to destroy their brethren, and the 
best men in the world, for being so : such as 
now live under the Turk have the same obli- 
gation upon them of defending their master, 
and slaughtering those he reputes his enemies 
for adhering to Christianity: and the King of 
France may, when he pleases, arm one part Of 
his Protestant subjects, to the destruction of 
another ; which is a godly doctrine, and worthy 
our author's invention. But if this be so, I 
know not how the Israelites can be said to have 
sinned in following the examples of Jeroboam, 
Omri, Ahab, or other wicked kings. It is im- 
pertinent to say they were obliged to serve their 
kings in unjust wars, but not to serve idols ; for 
though God be jealous of his glory, yet he forbids 
rapine and murder, as well as idolatry. If there 
be a law that forbids the subject to examine the 
commands tending to the one, it cannot but 
enjoin obedience to the othiT. The same au- 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 931 



thority which justifies murder, takes away the 
guilt of idolatry/' ( Discourses concerning Go- 
vernment, Ch. iii. Sect. 20.) 

Now arose the Quakers, whose profession of 
faith is too well expressed by Barclay not to be 
given in his own words : 

" If to revenge ourselves, or to render injury, 
evil for evil, wound for wound, to take eye for 
eye, tooth for tooth ; if to fight for outward and 
perishing things, to go a warring one against 
another, whom we never saw, nor with whom 
we never had any contest, nor any thing to do ; 
being, moreover, altogether ignorant of the cause 
of the war, but only that the magistrates of the 
nations foment quarrels one against another, the 
causes whereof are, for the most part, unknown 
to the soldiers that fight, as well as upon whose 
side the right or wrong is ; and yet to be so 
furious, and rage one against another, to destroy 
and spoil all, that this or the other worship may 
be received or abolished ; if to do this, and 
much more of this kind, be to fulfil the law 
of Christ, then are our adversaries indeed true 
Christians, and we miserable heretics, that suffer 
ourselves to be spoiled, taken, imprisoned, ba- 
nished, beaten and evilly intreated, without any 
assistance, placing our trust only in God, that 
he may defend us, and lead us by the way of the 
cross into his kingdom. But if it be otherways, 



232 



APPENDIX 



TO LECTURE VI. 



we shall certainly receive the reward which the 
Lord hath promised to those that cleave to 
him, and, in denying themselves, confide in 
him." 

Three observations suggest themselves on this 
account of the principal classes of Christians 
by whom war has been condemned : 

1. The Unitarian will, perhaps, not be sorry 
to remark, that a conviction of its criminality 
has generally been found in connexion with 
those notions of doctrine which bear most affi- 
nity to his own, or with that religious liberty 
which usually precedes or accompanies their 
adoption, 

2. The history of this aversion from war fur- 
nishes a presumption in favour of its being 
inseparable from pure Christianity, It appears 
strongest at the nearest period of which we can 
gain information to the apostolic age ; it gradu- 
ally wore out as religion became corrupt, until 
it was quite lost ; as the New Testament was 
again studied, and made the rule of faith and 
practice, it reappeared ; and it was most powerful 
in those who, according to our opinions, were 
the most enlightened and consistent of all who 
aided in the great work of Reformation. 

3. Whether recourse to arms be essentially 
unlawful, or allowable in some extreme cases, 
of rare occurrence ; and whether the military 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



23$ 



profession should be altogether avoided by Chris- 
tians, or only when the}^ deem the cause unjust, 
or the means forbidden ; are differences compa- 
ratively of little moment, so long as there is a 
common and lively sense of the miseries and 
crimes which war produces ; this feeling pure 
Christianity unquestionably excites, and will 
excite and diffuse as it becomes better under- 
stood and more generally adopted ; and its ten- 
dency, therefore, is to mitigate the evils and 
prevent the recurrence of wars, until its full 
influence shall realize the promised universal 
reign of the Prince of Peace. 

Of late, the subject has been regarded as less 
belonging to theology than to humanity and 
benevolence. This is by no means to be re- 
gretted. Numerous and laudable efforts are 
making by societies in this country and in 
America, to communicate information upon it, 
and who will not heartily wish them success ? 
For an account of some of these, and of the 
tracts issued by them, I must refer the reader to 
a letter from Mr. Scargill, in the Monthly Re- 
pository for June 1816. It is not amongst tire 
least merits of that valuable publication, that it 
has so frequently, ably and perseveringly called 
the public attention to this subject, and thus 
strengthened the hands of the friends of peace. 

I have lengthened this Appendix much beyond 



234 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI. 



my intention, which was merely to have puttoge- 
ther two or three quotations and remarks, which 
could not conveniently have been placed in the 
notes. It cannot conclude better than with 
the following extract from a most useful work, 
which I should be glad to persuade its able 
author to republish, and every Englishman to 
read and profit by. 

" Those who reason in favour of the perfec- 
tibility of man, draw all that is solid in their 
arguments from the possibility of the reduction 
of the moral evil by which the world is op- 
pressed. They see the labour of man employed 
rather in preparing the apparatus of death, than 
in producing the means of life ; and they say 9 
were the moral sentiments of men corrected, 
war and show would have no place ; and the 
expense of war and luxury being converted to 
the uses of life, would supply all the real wants 
of all that live. To a certain extent this must 
be admitted to be true, and the prospect is so 
cheering, that we hope the vision is divine. 
The first step appears to be the instruction of 
the people. They must be taught that war is 
ever injurious to their interest; that it is the 
contrivance of tyranny for the subjugation of 
ignorance ; and that as long as it is allowed in 
any country, the comfort of the people can never 
be secured. Convinced that this is true, we 



APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI, 



235 



•are proud to be as - a voice crying in the wil- 
derness' to hasten and assist the approach of 
human happiness/' — (A View of the Causes and 
Consequences of English Wars, by Anihonu Ro- 
binson. 17980 



( 236 } 



LECTURE VIL 

ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 



Rev. xi. 1,5. 

The kingdoms of this world are become the 
kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and 
he shall reign for ever and ever. 

The attention with which the Course of 
Lectures has been favoured, which I this night 
bring to a conclusion, renders such a request 
wholly unnecessary, or 1 should feel it incum- 
bent on me to solicit especially on the present 
occasion, your seriousness and candour for a 
subject very liable to misconstruction, and 
arguments which, though very trite perhaps, 
require both a calm and patient consideration 
fairly to estimate their weight. The various 
controversies which have existed on this subject 
have thrown it into great confusion. Some 
Christians cling to the hope of a Millenium ; 
while others attempt its demolition. Among 
philosophers the notion of the Perfectibility 
of Man has been exulted in as true ; and 



ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 237 



denounced as mischievous. These terms have 
been sometimes reckoned synonymous ; and at 
other times have been opposed to each other: 
while of both, and with advocates and opponents, 
there has been a great diversity of explanation. 
It is expedient therefore to premise, that I 
consider them as closely connected, and hope 
for that approach towards perfection in man, 
which Christianity in its purest and most 
powerful state can realize; and which will be 
accomplished in that universal diffusion of its 
knowledge and influence which is predicted 
in the Scriptures, and, from the mention of a 
thousand years in the Revelation, called the 
Millenium. Whether that marks the precise 
term, or is to be taken for an indefinite period ; 
and whether it will be accompanied with the 
personal reign of Christ on earth, and the 
-resurrection of the most distinguished of his 
disciples to share its glories, are questions of 
considerable interest in themselves, but not 
being essentially connected with the present 
subject, I shall not embarrass it by their intro- 
duction. With the idea of human perfectibility 
some absurdities have been associated, for which 
the use of that expression should not make me 
responsible. Such is that of organic perfec- 
tibility — the triumph of mind over matter, so 
as to banish disease, and long retard, if not 
evade, the stroke of death. Such also are all 



238 



ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 



minute and particular schemes of the condition 
of man in that period : which only shew the 
ingenuity or folly of their inventors, and are 
mere fancy -pictures, with probably very dissi- 
milar features from what the reality will present. 
I have merely a general anticipation of a state 
of very high improvement, of knowledge, li- 
berty, peace, virtue and felicity, to which man 
will be, in the latter days, conducted by 
Christianity. This is what I attempt to prove ; 
and all. If we love our fellow creatures, we 
can scarcely be indisposed to inquire into their 
future destiny, nor backward to hail with 
gladness intimations of brighter scenes than 
have occupied the past, and occupy the present 
of their history. That prospect seems to me 
to be grounded on the plain declarations of 
Scripture, the express assertions of prophecy, 
as well as supported by rational deduction from 
observation and fact. Indeed the expectation 
of its realization was very generally entertained. 
Of late a more gloomy system has prevailed, 
both with religionists and philosophers, which 
dooms the human race for ever to alternations 
of good and evil, instead of allowing the hope 
of a gradual advance. This change is much 
owing to disappointed hopes. It is a revulsion 
of feeling after the bold expectations which 
twenty-five years ago floated on men's minds. 
But that embittered feeling should now be 



ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 



239 



corrected. It should not become philosophy, 
nor the minds of the rising generation be bowed 
to despair, unless there be convincing proof 
that ail was fallacious. Let us rather revert, 
now that the storm is passing, to the inspiring faith 
of elder times. For ages, holy and benevolent 
men entertained this glorious hope, received it 
as a truth with gratitude, and cherished it with 
devotion. It was the spring and solace of their 
souls. In their career of successful exertion, 
it was the heart-stirring motive that impelled 
their efforts, and they hailed each triumph 
over vice and misery as a pledge of its truth, 
and an earnest of its accomplishment: and in 
their failures, it saved them from despondency. 
It was the common faith of Christians, or rather 
of the world; for here the speculations of 
philosophers harmonized with the dictates of 
heaven's commissioned teachers ; and the songs 
of idolatrous bards pealed in transient, yet 
blissful, unison with the predictive strains of 
the harp of Judah. It ascended in evidence 
and loveliness from the inspiration of poetry, to 
that of prophecy ; and from the plausibility 
of conjecture, to the certainty of revelation. 
When theological warfare raged ; when systems 
were created, and systems destroyed ; it passed 
unattacked and untouched through the con- 
fusion, reverenced like the heralds of old in 
battle, as the sacred minister of heaven and 



240 



ON HUMAN 



PERFECTIBILITY. 



peace, alike by hostile and infuriate parties. At 
length came that period of wild and daring 
-speculation, when the unprecedented convul- 
sions of the political world were only paralleled 
by those of the moral world, and both seemed 
fraught with anarchy and desolation. The 
bonds of society were loosened ; altars, and 
thrones, and empires fell ; and their destroyers 
wild with conquest, and frantic with impiety, 
threatened to blot out the light of revelation, 
and subvert the throne of God. The philo- 
sophers of the day discarded the Christian hope 
of another world, a world of immortality and 
perfect bliss, and gave us in exchange, the 
vision of complete happiness, equality, and 
perpetuity here, to be realized by the omnipo- 
tence of human energy. This sparkling bubble 
has burst — and at their theories men smile now, 
as at the incoherencies of slumber, or the 
ravings of insanitv. But the reaction has been 
too strong. Society, like the individual, is 
liable to passion ; may be intoxicated with 
hope, or paralized by despair. Events then 
fired their expectations ; but they mistook the 
direction of the current, and were dashed upon 
the rocks. They connected their extravagancies 
with the rational hope of an immense improve- 
ment in the state of mankind ; and there is 
danger lest both should be exploded together : 
lest a valuable truth should be discarded because 



ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 241 

it has been linked with baseless reveries and 
palpable absurdities. An opposite system has 
been raised on the ruins of this : a system not 
less deadly to the hopes and best feelings of 
mankind. We are forbidden to hope more than 
a temporary advance, to be compensated by 
succeeding gloom. Because men no longer 
imagine, with some, that man may raise himself 
even to immortality; they abandon the prospect 
of improvement, for the heartless notion of 
running an eternal round of transitory prosperity, 
followed by war and vice and misery. To 
this, a celebrated Essay on Population has 
greatly contributed ; though the facts there 
adduced, by no means warrant all the inferences 
of the author himself, still less those of many 
of his followers ; yet they have made it the 
fashion to despair. Because man read not 
rightly then, the page of observation, he is now 
taught to doubt that of revelation. The avenues 
of the mind are barred against hope, as though 
she were the most unwelcome visitant. It is 
true these fancied chains are but withs, which 
need no Herculean strength to tear them asunder: 
the verbal critic nibbles at a text, and thinks 
that when he has mangled a word, he has 
destroyed a principle. The philosopher sets up 
a calculation of the impossibilities that impede 
Omnipotence ; and the politician points to the 
supposed failure of one attempt to ameliorate 

R 



242 ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 



the state of man as a demonstration of his 
miserable and degraded destiny. Let not the 
sneers of such, or the dread of reputed enthu- 
siasm, prevent the assertion of what is true, 
scriptural, important, useful and consolatory, 
at a time when most it is needed. Let us 
cling to Scripture ; let us lay hold on prophecy : 
on the summit of that mountain all is bright- 
ness and sunshine, while clouds darken and 
desolate the plain below. The two systems are 
in full contrast. How different the views they 
give us of God and man, the present and the 
future ! We may surely demand that a belief 
so abhorrent to our nature should rest on no 
slight foundation. On no partial evidence let 
that sentence be pronounced, which consigns 
to the darkness of the grave our dearest expec* 
tations. 

" If that be true which Nature never told, 
Let Wisdom smile not on her conquered field ; 
No rapture dawns, no treasure is reveal'd! 
Oh ! let her read, nor loudly, nor elate, 
The doom that bars us from a better fate ; 
But, sad as angels for the good man's sin, 
Weep to record, and blush to give it in l" 

The first appeal is to experience. What is 
the language of the past? Has the human race 
been stationary, gradually deteriorating, alter- 
nating between improvement and degradation, 



ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 243 

or gradually advancing ? Let facts decide. Not 
minute, partial, isolated events, but the broad 
facts of universal history. Was the human race 
ever in a state superior to the present ? If so, 
point to the record, and in that interesting 
narrative let us forget the humiliating contrast. 
Was it in that first, dimly-seen stage of being, 
the infancy of mankind, when man was scarcely 
distinguished, but by name, from his fellow- 
tenants of the earth ? When his language was 
little more than inarticulate cries, the summit 
of his science to construct the cabin that should 
be a little shelter from the storm, and to procure 
a bare subsistence the summit of his bliss ? 
Was it when these wretched individuals formed 
savage hordes, their abode unfixed, their occu- 
pation war or hunting, their religion the worship 
of stars or clouds, no law but force, and no 
restraint on their passions but the physical 
impossibility of their gratification? Was it in 
the next stage of society, when these hordes 
were amalgamated under a barbarous despotism, 
in which boundless power was wielded by 
individual caprice for purposes of wanton cru- 
elty, and men became like beasts, unreasoning 
as the most senseless, oppressed as the most 
enduring, or bloody as the most savage ? Was 
it when civilization was confined to a few small 
states in Greece, and even there three fourths 
were slaves, holding life at the capricious will 

r 2 



244 ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 

of their masters, those proud masters themselves 
the slaves of ignorance, and dupes of priest- 
craft, fluctuating between external war and 
internal commotion, anarchy and tyranny? Was 
it even in the best days of Rome, of Rome 
polluted by the abomination of domestic slavery, 
and waging eternal war with the world, offering 
only the alternative of subjection or extermi- 
nation ; rude in arts, with no philosophy, and 
a religion whose gods and ceremonies make one 
blush or shudder ? Was it in subsequent times 
of confusion, persecution and distraction ; or in 
yet later ages, when kings tyrannized over 
people, and priests over king's ; w r hen every 
petty chieftain had a property of men ; when 
perversions of justice, and corruptions of Chris- 
tianity passed unreproved and unnoticed ? To 
what point will ye turn back the wheels of time 
and bid them stop as at a season of higher 
improvement than the present ? Or what 
branch of knowledge can be selected, connected 
with the happiness of mankind, which has 
experienced a retrograde* 3 motion ? Did the 
ancients ever rival, or approximate to the 
moderns, in the useful arts P Did they culti- 
vate the ground with greater skill, or frame 
more commodious dwellings, or temper the 
ore with nicer art, or did their looms produce 
robes more gorgeous, or clothing more commo- 
dious than ours ? Or are their mariners and 



ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 245 



boasting-boats to be compared with the vessels 
and skill of those bv whom the boundless ocean 
has been traversed, and new worlds discovered ? 
From the arts turn to the sciences. Contrast 
their egregious errors, and cloudy theories, with 
the accumulated facts and solid principles, and 
stupendous discoveries of later ages. Are 
political institutions selected ? In these perhaps 
they most excelled — but with all the boasted 
freedom of the noblest of them, they still 
consulted the protection of the few, the oppres- 
sion of the many. Slaves, the bulk of the 
inhabitants, were beneath the laws. Their best 
governments ought to be compared with the 
best modern governments: not with Spain or 
Turkey, but with England and America ; but 
with regard to the mass of the people, there is 
probably no government in Europe under which 
their condition is not far better than under the 
most celebrated governments of antiquity. In 
religious knowledge and moral theory they are 
infinitely distanced. A list of vices exploded 
now, but fearlessly practised then, might be 
framed, which would strike with horror. All 
sound philosophy of man, his nature, duties 
and capabilities, is of modern growth. The 
world is wiser— and with wisdom, virtue and 
happiness have a close alliance. Our improve- 
ments in the arts are felt everyday, by every 
labourer in his cot. The better administration. 



246 



ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 



of justice diffuses peace and security over 
nations. A wider intercourse promotes useful 
knowledge and benevolent plans. Our bene- 
volent institutions are of modern origin and 
rapid progression. Information is diffused to 
an unexampled extent. Domestic slavery has 
a very limited existence, and foreign slavery has 
received a death-blow. The grossness of ancient 
superstition has retired to the abodes of savages, 
nor even there maintains its ground. The 
domestic affections are called forth, and a refined 
enjoyment scattered over countries, of which 
they had not even that remote conception which 
we form of the higher felicity of futurity. (*) 

I know it is objected that this deduction is too 
confined, and applies only to a small part of the 
globe; that the ruins of Athens are no monu- 
ments of the progress of man, nor the deserted 
towers of Babylon temples of his perfectibility. 
But has the proportion of uncivilized nations 
ever been less than it is now, or the prospect 
of their emerging from barbarism ever greater ? 
Surely not. Nor let us be told that empire has 
fluctuated, as if that had much influence on the 
question. The conquerors have oft become the 
vanquished. But they were slaves when their 
lords led them forth to slaughter ; and probably 
not more virtuous or happy than when in their 
turn they were subdued by others. That there 
are continual fluctuations ; that Egypt has retro- 



ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY, 247 



graded, and China seems stationary ; that the 
sail of commerce veers from coast to coast, and 
the sceptre of dominion changes hands; is all 
very consistent with a gradual advance in the 
whole species : these are but the bubblings and 
tossings of the surface of the ocean, while a 
strong under- current bears resistlessly along in 
its allotted course. The degradation of one 
nation may be subservient to the elevation of 
the world. Rome was humbled in being con- 
quered by barbarians. But look at what those 
barbarians have become, — there is more than 
ample compensation. Beneath that mass of 
barbarism the fire of intellect lay buried, but 
not extinguished :.it was but a pile of fuel for 
its gathering strength : at the revival of letters, 
in the Reformation, that fire again towered up 
in brilliance; tyranny shall perish in its blaze, 
and nations revel in the splendour of its illumi- 
nation. ( u ) 

It is obvious upon the whole, that a mighty 
and happy change has taken place: it has been 
not sudden, but progressive and accelerated. 
Why should not the future correspond with the 
past ? Why should not the sun of improvement 
fise to-morrow as it rose to-day ? Whatever 
be the obstacles that obstruct the progress of 
man, they have already operated in different 
countries and ages ; the world has advanced in 
spite of them ; and why should we argue from 



248 



ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY* 



their past feebleness to their future omnipotence ? 
New ones, more powerful, must arise, or the 
auspicious progress which they could not pre- 
vent, must continue. Or have we now reached 
an impassable boundary ? Are we now, for the 
first time, become stationary } Now, when every 
day teems with some scientific discovery, or 
useful invention, — with efforts of genius for the 
enlightened, and facilities of instruction for the 
ignorant ; or with new efforts of benevolence in 
behalf of the poor, the prisoner and the slave ? 
Now, when schools rise in every village, and 
the Bible travels into every cottage ; when the 
principles of civil and religious liberty are better 
understood than ever, useful information is more 
widely diffused, and a more general, practical 
conviction prevails that man should be univer- 
sally the friend of man ? Bold must he be who 
can look round him, and assert that the present, 
with all its just subjects of complaint, is not a 
season of rapid advancement. 

The invention of printing, with its accom- 
paniments and results in the increased com- 
munication of countries with each other, the 
prevalence of discussion, especially of religious 
truth, the diffusion of information, and the ap- 
proaching universality of education, preclude 
for ever the recurrence of some of those vicissi- 
tudes by which the world has apparently been 
thrown back and darkened for ages. We cannot 



ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 



249 



again tread that dreary road. No powers of 
evil can revive its horrors. Before that can 
be accomplished, the human mind must be 
brutalized by ages of degradation ; all records of 
the past must be annihilated; books must be 
destroyed, and printing forgotten ; all our rich 
heritage of freedom and wisdom alienated ; and 
an universal combination formed to blindfold 
posterity. But into this no priestcraft can cajole, 
no tyranny compel mankind. It would be a 
miracle of omnipotent malignity. Here, then, 
we may look boldly on to the future, and reply 
to the demand for further resources for improve- 
ment ; w T e find them in the gigantic strides of 
science, especially as connected with the mind 
of man; — in a pure philosophy, which develops 
the laws and instructs us in the formation and 
regulation of that mind ; — in the prospect of 
useful information becoming the portion of man- 
kind ; — in the civilization of the barbarous, and 
the improvement of political institutions, which, 
yielding to increased knowledge, become in turn 
the causes of greater increase ; and above all, 
in the mighty word of God, which, shaking off 
the corruptions that enveloped it, has begun its 
career of triumph, and shall " go forth con- 
quering and to conquer/' These are engines 
of wondrous force. Who shall calculate their 
powers ? Who shall limit their results ? Is it 
enthusiasm to expect that to them shall yield 



250 



HUMAN 



PERFECTIBILITY. 



the passions and prejudices of mankind ? Is it 
folly to think that by them shall be realized 
those bright visions which hope suggests, be- 
nevolence cherishes^ experience confirms, and 
which are sanctioned by the certain declarations 
of the immutable God? If this be enthusiasm, 
she wears the garb of truth, rests on the rock of 
ages, and is crowned with the rainbow of hea- 
venly promise ! Ever be she the inmate of my 
bosom ! Let present comforts fade away, — let 
transitory vicissitude make life the sport of for- 
tune, — let adversity and depression cloud my 
horizon,— 

-» 

<f Cease every joy to glimmer on the mind, 
But leave, Oh ! leave the light of hope behind 

that hope which breathes no selfish w r ish, but 
longs for the universal brotherhood of man, the 
coming of the kingdom of the God of love. 

With regard to mere physical science, it is 
admitted that knowledge once gained is never 
lost, and must go on to an indefinite increase. 
The discoveries of Kepler, Newton, Franklin, 
Davy, once made, are made for all nations, and 
all posterity : but it has been contended that in 
whatever relates to the duties, passions and 
happiness of man, there is not the same pro- 
gress ; the greatest mischiefs that afflict the 
world, have been deliberately inflicted by men 



OX HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 251 

of such acquirements as can scarcely be ex- 
pected to become universal. Profound wisdom 
and the strongest talent have been united with 
ambition, or envy, or bigotry; and have served 
the cause of war, persecution or slavery. Some 
higher power than these is therefore requisite, 
and that is, religion — Christianity. The gospel 
is not true, or it is fullv able to controul and 
purify the most potent passions, and to direct 
the highest energies of intellect to the promotion 
of the general good ; it is not of God, or it shall 
be the universal religion of man ; inspiration, 
prophecy, providence, must be subverted and 
falsified, or the hopes which we have shewn they 
dictate, will surely be realized ; Jesus is not the 
anointed Son of God, or the period will arrive 
when his second coming, the establishment of 
his spiritual dominion, shall present the accom- 
plishment of the text, and " the kingdoms of 
this world become the kingdoms of our Lord 
and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever 
and ever/* 

From the Christian, this argument admits of 
no reply. His religion is the authoritative 
assertor of its own destiny to universal empire 
over the faith and hearts of men ; and of their 
consequent knowledge, piety and mutual kind- 
ness. The proof of human perfectibility, as we 
have explained it, is involved in the proof that 
Christianity is of God, and caa only be de- 



252 ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY* 

stroved in the destruction of revelation. The 
unbeliever, indeed, may say, how is it that 
Christianity has not produced these effects 
already, where it has prevailed? Rome is Chris- 
tian, and Rome persecuted; Britain is Christian, 
and Britain is warlike ; Spain is Christian, and 
Spain groans in despotism. We recur to that 
distinction which Christianity itself marks in 
its prophecies, and which we have ail along 
endeavoured to shew, between real and nominal 
Christianity. The corrupt system which has 
claimed that name, neutralizes most of the be* 
nignant tendencies of the gospel, while its own 
malignant powers have full and deadly play. 
But to all the desolating evils of society, Chris- 
tianity is directly opposed, and to their downfall 
is fully adequate. 

This we have already shewn in the case of 
war. Were governments Christian, they would 
not violate the repose of countries. Were 
people Christian, they would not hire them- 
selves out to kill without knowing why : the 
military profession would be at end. There 
would not be less courage in the world. The 
first Christians dared die, but not fight. They 
would not kill at Caesar's command, but they 
submitted to be killed, and dying, overthrew the 
altars of his gods. But this part of our subject 
is already discussed. What other evils are there, 
too strong for Christianity ? The sufferings of 



ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY, 253 

society may be chiefly attributed, as leading 
causes, to the abuse of power by those whose 
authority should only be used tor the general 
good ; to the great inequalities of property and 
privileges which commonly obtain, and the vice 
and misery flowing from the poverty and igno- 
rance to which this inequality consigns numbers; 
and to establishments and institutions which 
impede inquiry, knowledge and pure religion. 
These are the great elements of evil, forming 
various combinations in different times and coun- 
tries, but in all producing diversified misery. 
What human hecatombs have bled in sacrifice 
to the mad ambition of princes! It is computed 
that Julius Caesar caused the loss of between 
two and three millions of lives. But why select 
individuals ? When has not power made this 
globe of earth its football, and crushed its inha- 
bitants like insects ? What stream of note has 
not the blood of our own countrymen swelled 
and stained, or what soil have not their bodies 
fertilized? How does the imperfection of so- 
ciety, such imperfection as Christianity must 
remedy, appear in the record of its greatest 
benefactors, to whom posthumous veneration 
has but too often been a poor atonement for 
persecution through life, and in many cases 
ignominious death ! We might easily adduce a 
sickening list of martyrs to their own benevo- 
lence and the general good. How wretched, in 



234 ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 



most states, is the condition of the lowest classes ; 
and what can be expected from them but vice ? 
The Inquisition yet blots out by penalties the 
light of intellect ; and many a state-religion i& 
the frowning barrier to protect a moral wilder- 
ness, which pure Christianity would soon cause 
to fic rejoice and blossom as the rose," in all the 
loveliness of knowledge, peace and virtue. 

And what claim has all this to eternity? Or 
what is here that has not sometimes yielded to 
a feebler engine than Christianity ? Patriotism 
has destroyed abused power, and made authority 
but the minister of God for good ; why should 
not Christianity? Time and knowledge and 
commerce have worn out feudal rights and vas- 
salage, and mitigated the evils of disparity of 
station ; and why should they defy Christianity ? 
The laws of Lycurgus for ages destroyed the 
insufferable mischiefs entailed by enormous in- 
equalities of property ; have the precepts of 
Jesus less energy? Policy and passion have 
levelled institutions with the dust, and trampled 
on antiquity and prejudice; a corrupted gospel 
silenced the oracles of the heathen deities, and 
changed their temples into churches ; — and what 
establishments shall resist reviving truth ? ( x ) 

The direct operation of pure Christianity on 
societies is yet untried. As it became general, 
in the Roman empire, it also became corrupted, 
and had no longer the same heavenly controul 



ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 955 

over individuals. But we do know that every 
fiercest and strongest passion has bowed before 
it; and every corrupt desire and natural weakness 
vanished. Scarcely can mightier antagonists 
be found than those already vanquished. And 
improvement is essentially progressive. Its 
course is accelerated. " Such has it hitherto 
been, and such the nature of things assure us it 
must continue to be. Like a river, into which, 
as it flows, new currents are continually dis- 
charging themselves, it must increase, till it 
becomes a wide-spreading stream, fertilizing and 
enriching all countries." 

The great difficulty which modern speculation 
opposes, as insuperable, to this prospect, is de- 
rived from the principle of population. We 
have seen the fallacy of this as an apology for 
wars; nor is it really more formidable as levelled 
against human improvement. Wallace (who first 
advanced the argument since adopted by Mal- 
thus to combat the theories of the author of 
Political .) ustice) supposes that the establishment 
of an universal, perfect government, would be 
succeeded by such an increase of the human 
species above the supply of food, as to revive 
vice, misery and contention, for their destruction. 
This danger is very remote, and equally unreal. 
For the supposition is of a state of society full 
of wisdom and benevolence — while the danger 
implies a total want of prudent foresight and 



2.56 ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 



virtuous resolution, which by timely exercise 
would be amply sufficient to bar its arrival. 
The real mischief is, as Malthus states, not in 
the future, but the present. What he calls the 
evil of a redundant population is felt, in most 
countries— and why? Not because the earth 
is fully cultivated ; not because almost every 
country might not maintain five times the 
number of its present inhabitants: but because 
arbitrary institutions interpose between man and 
the soil. They prevent the increase of subsist- 
ence, in order to preserve luxury, dependence, 
and a thousand other evils. Let these give way ? 
as they must, and the apprehended disorder of 
redundant population is postponed to an immea- 
surable distance, and vanishes into thin air. (y) 

The fact is, that if unshackled by arbitrary 
restrictions, population will always command 
and produce subsistence, until the productive- 
ness of the earth be exhausted. So far from 
belonging to the most formidable sources of evil, 
history shews that increase of numbers belongs 
to the principles of improvement, and has ge- 
nerally been found in those times and places 
where the most rapid and brilliant advances have 
been made in science and the arts, and general 
knowledge. Of this the Grecian republics, the 
Italian states of the middle ages, the Protestant 
countries of Europe since the Reformation, and 
America, are instances. That temporary evil 



ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 95J 

may attend its operation, especially in an early 
stage, is a circumstance common to ail the pro- 
gressive principles. " Nations/ 5 observes a phi- 
losophical writer on the progress of society, 
i: as they advance in numbers and wealth, are 
commonly found to become more dissolute and 
immoral. Now, generally speaking, in conse- 
quence of principles deeply implanted in human 
nature, an increase in these particulars is conti- 
nually taking" place. For some time, therefore, 
there is, as it were, a continual progress down- 
wards, a perpetual multiplication of vices and 
disorders. And this effect would be still more 
evident, were it not for the influence of certain 
restraints, which are seasonably brought into 
action. After a certain period, however, new 
principles operate. From amid this chaos order 
begins to arise ; a gradual refinement takes place ; 
arts, sciences and philosophy, rear their head ; 
which, though in their imperfect and crescent 
state they may tend rather to increase the dis- 
order, yet when improved and perfected seem 
destined to raise the human race to a condition 
much superior to that rude simplicity from 
which they had emerged. This improvement 
springs up, as it were, in the bosom of the pre- 
ceding corruption, and for a long time co-exists 
along with it. At first almost insensible, it 
prevails more and more, till there seems reason 

s 



I 



2,58 ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 

to hope that it may at last attain a very consi- 
derable ascendancy. 3 * ( z ) 

This process is analogous to what has hap- 
pened, under the direction of Providence, with 
the mightiest cause of human improvement, — 
revealed religion. It has been justly observed, 
that in every state of it, Patriarchal, Jewish and 
Christian, there has been, first of all, the insti- 
tution, then the corruptions, and lastly the 
reformation ; and that, " in each thorough refor- 
mation of religion, there is something raised 
above the primitive standard in the minds of its 
recipients ; that men are generally prepared to 
enter more fully into the plan and spirit of it, 
to arrive at a more clear and complete discovery 
of its several ends and uses, than at its original 
institution/ 3 Thus evil exists for the production 
of greater good ; death precedes a resurrection 
to immortality ; and worlds are reduced to chaos, 
that nobler systems may rise in splendour from 
their ruins. 

There doubtless appears, at first sight, in the 
history of man, a series of vibrations. Times of 
light and darkness, of freedom and captivity, of 
glory and degradation, have succeeded each other 
in regular alternation from the periods of earliest 
records. But instead of opposing the notion of 
gradual improvement, this fact illustrates the 
mode in which it has hitherto proceeded. The 



OX HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 2o9 

oscillations are not uniform. The pendulum 
swings each time through a lesser arch than 
before, till it stops. Not so, in its vibrations, 
is the human intellect. Far as it may have 
retrograded, each period of revival has seen it 
higher than before. On looking back, we see, 
therefore, a series of landmarks of the progress 
of man, confirming the proud hope of his inde- 
finite advance, an advance now unclogged with 
many of the difficulties which have occasioned 
past interruptions, and aided by machines of more 
resistless power than have yet been put in action. 
To borrow a noble illustration : " The progress 
of improvement, intellectual and moral, indi- 
vidual and national, is like the flowing tide. 
A wave advances beyond the rest, and it falls 
back again ; you would suppose that the sea 
was retreating ; but the next wave pushes further 
still ; and still the succeeding one goes beyond 
that: so that by a gradual, and for some time 
imperceptible, but sure and irresistible progress, 
the mighty element bears down every obstruc- 
tion, and, in due time, occupies its destined 
station. Even before the inadvertent spectator 
is aware, the soil and slime, and all unsightly 
and rugged objects, disappear, and the whole 
space is occupied by the beautiful and majestic 
main. Such, no doubt, will be the uncontroul- 
able progress of amelioration, under the divine 
government, till that auspicious sera shall arrive, 

s 2 



260 



ON HUMAN PER FECTIBI L J T Y. 



marked in resplendent characters in the decrees 
of heaven, and to which the golden index of 
prophecy continually points, when the 4 know- 
ledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the 
waters cover the seas,' and the reign of truth, 
freedom, virtue and happiness, shall be universal 
and everlasting." — ( Belshanis Plea for the Ca- 
tholic Claims. J 

And what to us, it may be asked, are these 
anticipations of a futurity which we shall never 
see ? As to our perceptions, it must be unreal 
or remote as the fabled age of innocence and 
love, in which poets have entranced the imagi- 
nation of young enthusiasts. What are these 
visions to us, bright though they be, in our cir- 
cumstances, with our prospects, duties and cares, 
with the anxieties and business of life about 
us, death before us, and eternity beyond ? From 
such speculations of things, perhaps a thousand 
years to come, what solid good are we to reap 
of moral advantage, or social joy, or religious 
motive ? What is it to us how the scenery may 
shift, when we have left the stage, or in what 
glory may close the world's eventful drama ? 
And why, we answer, should not the future 
influence us, as well as the past ? Do not ages 
and characters and events gone by, affect our 
hearts and lives and destiny, our principles and 
feelings, our hopes and joys ? These things 
have to us only a mental existence; they belong 



O^X HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 



261 



to faith and not to sight, and the revealed future 
is certain as the past, prophecy as history, the 
end of the world as its creation. Indeed, 
history in general rests but on the testimony of 
man ; while prophecy of the future is the testi- 
mony of God. The sacred volume began with 
history and closed with prophecy ; they are the 
morning and evening light of the sun of revela- 
tion, which, in rising, shews us on the one hand 
the shadow of the past, and in setting, traces on, 
the other the outline of futurity. We ought 
not to be unmoved by the one, till we disclaim 
connexion with the other; and, like the beast,, 
live only for the passing hour, heedless alike of 
yesterday or to-morrow. The bare inquiry as 
to fact ought to command some attention and 
excite some interest. The inquiry is at least 
not less momentous than discussions on the site 
of demolished towns, the reality of recorded 
wars, the extent of vanished empires ; not less 
than speculations on the result of this or that 
conflict, the fall of one power or the rise of 
another. Were it morally useless, it w 7 ould not 
have been announced in Scripture, which never 
gratifies man's curiosity, but to mend his heart 
Or multiply his comforts. The human consti- 
tution has changed since Jesus wandered with 
his disciples by the lake of Galilee, or taught 
upon its mountain, if there be nothing in these 
bright anticipations to inspire holy delight^ 



262 ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 

needful consolation, moral obedience, and vigo- 
rous exertion. It must be useful, for it was 
revealed from heaven, taught by Christ, and 
recorded in Scripture. What is prayer, when 
once we step beyond our own wants and wishes, 
but communion with God, in which we enter 
into his plans, and seek the accomplishment of 
his designs? What, then, is all we ask, but a 
repetition of what he has promised shall be 
given ? And why were the disciples instructed 
to ask, " Thy kingdom come ; thy will be done 
on earth as it is in heaven," but to intimate the 
will of God, that such should be the final result; 
that amid opposition and discouragement they 
might not despair, but by hope be roused to 
incessant labour, and inspired with unfailing 
consolation ? It is useful to virtue, that plea- 
surable and triumphant feelings should follow 
in her train. Though truth and goodness shall 
have in other worlds abundant recompence and 
honour, though they are lovely here even in their 
lowliest ministerings ; yet, so entwined are our 
feelings with the present state, so strongly does 
this world wind itself around the heart, that it is 
well not always to think of them as doomed 
to obscurity, or pining in neglect, but as rising 
above opposition, and robing themselves in the 
majesty of spiritual dominion. None can deny 
the felicity of hope ; and virtuous pleasure must 
be conducive to virtue. Thus God of old 



OX HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 



263 



vouchsafed to invigorate his chosen servants. 
It was when the prophet pined in a solitary cave 
over his unavailing efforts against corruption, 
that the celestial voice announced the numbers 
who had not yet bowed the knee to Baal. It was 
when the beloved disciple languished in gloomy 
banishment, that heavenly visions depicted to 
his enraptured eyes the coming glories of Chris- 
tianity. And though if we include another state, 
this communication be not absolutely necessary 
to a vindication of the moral government of 
God, yet it makes that vindication more resist- 
less, gives it a commendation to the heart, and 
transforms a satisfactory defence into a splendid 
eulogy. Whatever leads man out of self, unites 
him with mankind, and gives him hopes and joys 
of universal concern, does him good ; it enlarges, 
expands and purifies his benevolence ; and is 
an advance from the calculations of individual 
interest, towards the disinterested love of the 
Almighty. It is thus that self-love is refined into 
social, and the most grovelling principle of man 
becomes akin to the noblest attribute of God. 

The motive to benevolent exertion thus 
gained is only inferior to that which arises from 
a future state of recompence. " If, indeed, 
there were no reasonable expectation of a future 
state of existence, it would, nevertheless, be 
pleasant and deserving of sincere gratitude, to 
live, though but for a short period, in this 



264 



ON HUMAN PERFECTIBILITY, 



beautiful and improving world; to behold the 
continually ameliorating state of things; to 
contribute our part, however humble, to the 
general improvement; to be as it were links in 
the golden chain of order and perfection ; to 
leave the world in a better condition than w r e 
found it ; and to enjoy by anticipation its future 
glorious and happy state." (Befoham.) Yes, 
were this the whole of revelation, we should 
prize the record, and bless its author ; we should 
say, Go on, ye friends of mankind, nor despair 
of success ; the good for which ye labour shall 
not pass away from the earth, but be followed 
by a rich harvest of happiness ; ye may descend 
into the grave, but no grave shall cover the 
blessings ye have earned for mankind; of heaven 
are the bright hopes and generous zeal by which 
you are animated, and heaven will secure their 
full gratification. But this is not the whole ; it is 
only the preparation for scenes more glorious still. 

We commenced these Lectures by noticing 
the analogy between the history of nature and 
that of revelation, in both which we see an 
original glory apparently defaced by evil, but 
that evil overruled to more abundant good : it is 
fitting to conclude them by observing, that both 
are parts of one great plan, conducted on the 
same principle, and extending to universal 
being. God is love-— his dominion is boundless 
—his agency is that of omnipotent benevolence, 



ONHUMAN PERFECTIBILITY. 265 



Whatever be the aberrations of their course^ 
from him his creatures sprung, and to him shall 
they ultimately be re-united, that he " may be 
all in all." For us, beyond the grave, there is 
a better world. Earth must always have its 
imperfections and sufferings; and its happiest 
inhabitants will have cause to turn to that, the 
eye of wistful expectation. Our fairest fancy 
of millenial glories fades and is eclipsed in 
comparison with the state where there shall be 
no death — where we shall form one holy and 
blessed community with the good of all ages and 
nations ; and the gates w ill only close on that 
which would defile, embitter, or destroy. Then 
shall we pass on through successive aeras of 
blessedness, each glowing with higher splendour, 
to that consummation of overwhelming glory, 
too dazzling to be steadily contemplated, when 
shall be achieved the final triumph of Almio-htv 
love- — when redeemed and ransomed multi- 
tudes, the remaining victims of evil, shall be 
emancipated from its last retreats ; and, the 
darkest mind illumined, the foulest bosom 
purified, not one vicious impulse shall be felt, 
and not one tear shall fall, through the illimi- 
table regions of the universe of God ; but from 
all creatures in all worlds, shall arise the swelling 
song of praise to Him, the Father, the giver of 
felicity eternal as his own throne, and boundless 
as his love! 



( 267 ) 



NOTES. 



INOTE (a)— Page 6. 

We must compute the time," observes Bishop NewtoK, 
" according to the nature and genius of the prophetic language.- 
A time, then, and times, and half a time, are three years and 
a half; and the ancient Jewish year, consisting of twelve months, 
and each month of thirty days, a time, and times, and half a 
time, or three years and a half, are reckoned in the Revelation, 
(xi. 2, 3 ; xii. 6, 14,) as equivalent to forty and two months, or 
1260 days ; and a day in the style of the prophets is a year :— 
so long Antichrist, or the little horn, will continue ; but from 
what point of time the commencement of these 1260 years is 
to be dated, is not so easy to determine. It should seem that 
they are to be computed from the full establishment of the 
power of the Pope." 

This prediction does appear to be justly referred to the Papal 
power exclusively ; but those in the New Testament demand a 
much wider application, to render them at all consistent. It 
was not the object of these Lectures to offer a minute and cri- 
tical interpretation of the prophecies in question, but to take 
some general views of the apostacy, which might be interesting 
and useful. The caution (as applied by Bayle) was borne in mind, 

— — u Nee Babylonios 

Teiiiaris numeros." 

The very ingenious letter of Mr. Evanson to Bishop Kurd, 
(which well deserves to be reprinted,) furnishes a variety of 



268 



NOTES, 



proofs and illustrations of the distinction above alluded to, and 
of the leading object of the first Lecture. 

" With respect to Daniel, it must be remarked, that if we 
except the celebrated prediction of the seventy weeks, the 
avowed objects of all his prophecies are the great revo)utions of 
civil government under the four universal monarchies of Ba- 
bylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. It is, therefore, reasonable 
to conclude, that no circumstances are introduced by the pro- 
phet, but such as coincide, or are necessarily connected, with 
the main scope of his predictions. Now since the ten horns 
of his fourth visionary beast are declared to be emblems of the 
many separate kingdoms, into which this prophet, so many 
ages before the event, repeatedly foretold the European Roman 
Empire would be divided, it will readily be granted, that the 
little horn, representing a temporal principality arising upon 
the ruins of some of the various governments, into which the 
body of the empire was at first broken, differing from the other 
kingdoms of the West, and though little, that is, inferior to 
the other principalities in power, yet assuming a tone and de- 
portment more arrogant than any of them, blaspheming the 
Deity, and persecuting conscientious Christians, is a very just 
and exact type of the Roman hierarchy, and applicable to no 
other hierarchy upon earth, because none other ever acquired 
to itself an independent civil dominion. But then it is to be 
observed, that the Church of Rome, as described in this pro- 
phecy, within the limits of its own temporal jurisdiction, that 
is, as far as its local situation is concerned, is itself one of the 
disjointed members of the old Roman Empire, a horn of the 
emblematic beast, described both in this vision and in the Reve- 
lation of St. John. It cannot, therefore, in respect of its local 
situation, be considered, much less exclusively considered, as 
the antitype of the woman represented by the apostle riding 
upon that very beast, that is, supported by all the European 
princes, of whom the Roman hierarchy is one. Nor can the 
exaltation of the Bishop of Rome to the throne of civil power, 
which is clearly one of the chief subjects of this prophecy, any 



NOTES. 



269 



otherwise assist us in determining the sera of that universal 
apostacy from the true religion of the gospel, predicted by the 
prophets of the new covenant, than as it affords us a very con- 
vincing proof of its having taken place previously to that event; 
because without a long and general falling away both of pastors 
and people, from the spirit and principles of Christianity, 
ecclesiastical ambition could never have aimed at, much less 
have attained so high a pinnacle of wordly greatness." 

The liberal divines of the Church of England, as Law, Jortin, 
Blackburne, &c. have seen and allowed that the spirit of Anti- 
christ has deeply infected Protestant Churches, and many Dis- 
senters* have made the same concession, even as to their own 
societies, An American divine, whose notions were sufficiently 
orthodox, asks, " Where can the church be found which is 
thoroughly purged from these abominations? Some churches 
may be more pure, and may have proceeded farther in a refor- 
mation, than others ; but none are wholly clear of an anti- 
christian spirit, and the fruits of it." See "A Treatise on the 
Millenium by Dr. Hopkins, Pastor of the first Congregational 
Church id Newport, Rhode Island." 

Good Dr. Hopkins could not exactly satisfy himself, any 
more than Bishop Newton, as to the time when the Millenium 
shall commence: for. as he observes of the Bishop of Rome, 
" As this beast rose gradually, from step to step, till he became 
a beast in the highest and most proper sense, this involves the 
subject in some degree of uncertainty." But he had a very 
clear perception of its blessings, apparently suggested, in some 
particulars, by present inconveniences. Thus he complains of 
the <; nuisance" of " huge rocks and stoues," which would then 
be applied to mending the roads. " Then in a literal sense, the 
valleys shall be filled, and the mountains and hills made low, and 
the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth, 
to render travelling more convenient and easy" Another of 
his anticipations is of a more professional nature. {( Then 
public teachers will be eminently burning and shining lights, — 
and the hearers will be all attention" The work commences 



270 



NOTES. 



with a very friendly address if to the people who shall live in 
the days of the Millenium,*' to inform them what is now thought 
of them, and he very properly and modestly assures them " all 
is humbly submitted to your better judgment." 

NOTE ( b )— Page 13. 

This remark occasioned an attack upon the author by au 
" Unitarian Baptist," whose letter, with some observations in 
reply, appeared in the Monthly Repository for Nov. 1 818. The 
offence probably originated in some misapprehension, which 
the appearance of the whole passage, exactly as delivered from 
the pulpit, may correct. The General Baptists have done 
good service to the cause of religious liberty, and but few of 
them can be implicated in, or offended by, a condemnation of 
Dissenting imposition, pronounced by one who is proud* on 
this subject, to be a disciple of that illustrious ornament of 
their denomination, Robert Robinson. He felt, strongly 
enough, the degradation of those who having renounced the 
splendid vassalage of the Church, could submit to the exaction, 
by societies or individuals, of creed, ceremony, or experience, 
as a necessary pre-requisite to those privileges which Christ 
designed for all his followers. 

Ibis sub furca pvudens, dorainoque — — 

Committes rem omnein, 

O toties servus ! Quae bellua ruptis, 
Cum semel effugit, reddit se prava catenis ? 

This subject is more fully discussed in Lecture IIL 

NOTE (c)— Page 19. 

Ben Mordecai, in his " Thoughts on the Grand Apostacy," 
introduces a selection of miracles, attested by the Fathers, 
which is not unamusing; — 



NOTES. 



271 



" St. Jerome tells us, that as St. Anthony was travelling 
through the desarts of Egypt, he espied a satyr approaching 
towards him : or a little man with goal's feet, a crooked nose, 
and a fort-head armed with horns, who, in token of peace, 
offered him the fruit of the palm-tree, and being asked presently 
by St. Anthony what he was, gave this answer; ' I am a 
mortal, ami one of those inhabitants of the desart, whom the 
deluded Gentiles worship, under the name of fawns, satyrs, 
and inrubi. and am now deputed, as an ambassador from our 
whole tribe , to beg your prayers and intercession for us, to 
our common Lord and Master; whom we know to have been 
sent for the salvation of the whole world.' 

" The same learned father informs us of a great dragon that 
could suck up whole oxen and sheep, with the herdsmen and 
shepherds, and swallow them down at once, and that Hilarion 
commanded him to ascend a pile of wood, which he obeyed, 
and was burnt to death. And that this same Hilarion could 
tell what particular devil any one was subject to, by the smell 
of his body or clothes, or any thing he touched. 

* s Gregory Xazianzen informs us that Gregory Thauma- 
turgus not only cast out Satan from a temple where he was wor- 
shipped, but afterwards wrote him the following billet, i Gregory 
to Satan, Enter: which was accordingly done. 

" Su/pi tius Severus tells us how a person was dispossessed 
by some of the straw, which St. Martin had lain upon; and 
how, after dispossession, he saw the devil upon a cow's 
back. 

te St. Martin himself tells Severus, that the devil appeared 
to him very splendidly arrayed, and pretended to be Christ; 
but the Holy Spirit revealing it to him, that it was the devil, 
he declared he would not believe that Christ was come, 
unless he appeared in that form and habit in which he suffered; 
upon which the devil vanished like smoke, and filled the cell 
with such a stink, as left unquestionable evidence that he was 
the devil. 

" Another time St, Martin said, he saw T a horrible devil, in 



272 



NOTES. 



the porch of a house, who being ordered to be gone, seized 
one of the family, and running open mouthed at the saint, as 
if he designed to bite him, St. Martin thrust his fingers into 
his mouth, and bid him eat them; upon which the devil, 
fearing to pass by his fingers, as if they had been red-hot iron 
in his jaws, went out at the other end, leaving 

te Ephraim, bishop of Cher son, tells us, how the body of 
Clemens Romanus being thrown into the sea, was received into 
a temple built by God, three miles from the shore; and how 
a boy lived there a year under water. 

" St. Austin asserts, of his own knowledge, several miracles 
wrought by the reliques of Stephen: and how the bodies of 
saints, which were discovered to St. Ambrose in a dream, two 
hundred years after their deaths, cured a blind man; and a 
maiden was brought to life by a gown brought from the place 
of St. Martin's martyrdom, whither she had sent it. 

" What shall we say to the tales of Johannes Diaconus, in 
his life of Gregory? Of a child that was brought to life by the 
the buskin of abbot Honoratus ? Of a monk who ordered a 
serpent to watch the kitchen-garden ? How Fortunatus, by 
the sign of the cross, tamed a wild horse ? How Sabrinus 
sent a written message to the river Po, not to overflow, which 
was obeyed ? And how Eutychius, wanting a shepherd, set 
a bear to lead out and bring home the sheep of the monastery at 
appointed hours, who did it exactly as long as he lived ?" 



NOTE (d)— Page 33. 

Forgery, that unpardonable crime in the state, does not 
seem to be so black an offence in the church, which has not 
only protected such interpolations of Scripture as 1 John v. 7, 
to which even the early English Bibles affixed the mark of 
suspicion ; adopted creeds all of which vary from their genuine 
forms, and one is undoubtedly spurious, and is supposed by 
some to have freen intended as a burlesque on the opinions of 



NOTES. 



273 



Athanasius, whose name it bears; but even asserts her 
authority, and rivets her fetters, by a warrant which there is 
strong reason for thinking was surreptitiously obtained. The 
evidence relative to thespuriousness of the commencement of 
Article xx, " The Church hath power to decree rites or 
ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith," is as 
follows : 

1. This clause does not exist in the MS. copy of the Articles, 
in Latin, presented to Bennet College, Cambridge, by Arch- 
bishop Parker, dated Jan. 29, 1562, and subcribed by the two 
archbishops, eighteen bishops, and about a hundred of the 
clergy : 

2. Nor in the English MS. presented by Archbishop 
Parker to the same College, dated May 11, 1571, and signed 
by eleven bishops. 

3. It is found in a Latin edition printed by Wolfe, 1563, 
but in the copy used and subscribed by the Lower House of 
Convocation, 1571, (preserved in the Bodleian Library) is 
erased. 

4. It is not in the Latin edition, of Day, published 1571. 

5. Of eleven English editions, collated by Dr. T. Bennet, 
(Vide Essay on the 39 Articles, 1715,/ printed before 1572. 
it only exists in four. 

In whatever way it was smuggled in, or however smuggled 
out, if genuine ; there it is now, to be subscribed, with the 
rest, ex animo. 

NOTE (e)— Page 35. 

The first of these was the Hampton-Court Farce. 

Elizabeth would enter into no treaty with the old Puritans, to 
alter or reform any thing. They were delivered over to Parker 
and Whitgift, for correction only ; which the latter exercised 
with so unfeeling a hand, and so far beyond his legal powers, 
that upon the queen's demise, he began to be terribly frightened 

T 



274 



NOTES. 



at the approach of king 1 James's first parliament; and it is 
probable enough his apprehensions hastened his death. 

He lived, however, to be present at the Hampton-Court 
Conference, where all objections were happily silenced by the 
commodious maxim of, no bishop, no king. The whole affair 
ended with extravagant compliments to the royal moderator, 
which some people, who were not Puritans, thought Christian 
bishops should not have carried so far. 

Barlow's account of it might well enough have been called, 
a Farce of three Acts, as it ivas played by his Majesty's 
Servants at Hampton- Court, fyc. But it proved to be no farce 
to the poor conscientious Puritans, with whom James faithfully 
kept his promise, viz. that "if they would not conform, he 
would harry them out of the land, and even do ivorse." 

What the Puritans aimed at, and hoped to obtain by this 
Conference, may be seen in that excellent rescript called the 
Millenary Petition^ preserved by Fuller (no bad model for a 
reformation, even in these days) ; what they did obtain, was 
imprisonment, deposition and exile. 

The violence with which the ruling bishops drove on, during 
this and the first part of the succeeding reign, (over which a 
good-natured man would throw a cloak, if he could find one 
large enough to cover it,) lost them first their seats in 
parliament, and afterwards their whole episcopal authority. 

2. Of those great and wise men who composed the parliament 
of 1641, (and greater or wiser, or more of them at one 
time, England never saw,) all were not of one mind, with respect 
to the bishops. 

iSorne thought that, particular delinquents being punished for 
examples, the order might remain, with such limitations, as 
w v uld, prevent its being mischievous for the time to come. 

With this view Archbishop Usher drew up his plan of the 
reduction of episcopacy ; and would the bishops have contented 
themselves with the powers reserved to them in that place, some 
have supposed they might have saved themselves, and very 
probably the king. 



NOTES. 



975 



But they were wiser. They supposed the king was interested 
in their preservation, and that if ever the crown should 
recover the prerogative claimed by James I. and Charles I., 
Episcopacy must rise again with that, in all its pomp and lustre, 
and in a condition to bring all those who had or should 
oppose it, to effectual repentance ; and in this, such of the 
bishops as lived to the year 1662, found they had not been 
mistaken. 

3. The third was the Savoy Conference, 1661. Charles If. 
impatient to accomplish his restoration, and having some 
misgivings, suggested probably by Lord Clarendon, that the 
Nonconforming party might still be strong enough to give him 
much uneasiness, published a declaration at Breda, giving 
the Presbyterians to understand two things, which were never 
intended to be carried into execution, but upon the extremest 
compulsion : 1. A new model of the Church of England. 
2. Where this should fall short of satisfying tender consciences, 
all possible ease and relief, by a large and comprehensive 
toleration. 

Charles soon found that the Dissenters were in no condition 
to molest him. Nevertheless, as the royal word was given, 
twice over, some show must be made of keeping it. And this 
produced the Savoy Conference ; a complication of sophistry, 
hypocrisy and virulence, on the part of the Orthodox, hardly to 
be paralleled in popish history. 

4. Clarendon's removal from the helm made way for a fourth 
attempt to reform the Church of England, in the year 1668, in 
which the undertakers on the side of the Church were sincere 
and hearty. These undertakers were, Judge Hale, Bishop 
Wilkins, Dr. Tillotson, and a few more, with the countenance 
of the Lord Keeper Bridgman — men, one may venture to say, 
of sufficient abilities and integrity, to recommend a plan of 
church-reformation to any Christian government. 

" But," says Burnet, *' what advantage soever the men of 
comprehension might have in any other respect, the majority 
of the House of Commons was so possessed against them, that, 

t 2 



276 NOTES. 

when it was known in a succeeding session that a bill was 
ready to be offered to the house for that end, [drawn by Lord 
Chief Justice Hale,] a very extraordinary vote passed, that no 
bill to that purpose should be received." This strange 
proceeding 1 is ascribed to the intrigues of Seth Ward, Bishop 
of Salisbury, who thus atoned for having held in, and taken the 
Covenant during the Usurpation. 

5* Some faint attempts towards an accommodation with 
Protestant Dissenters, by abating in the terms of Conformity, 
were afterwards made, during the reign of Charles II., 
particularly in the years 1673 and 1674. 

6. In the year 1676 there was a conference, in order to a 
comprehension, between Dr. Tillotson and Dr. Stillingfleet, on 
the one part, and some Dissenting Ministers on the other ; 
and matters seemed to be brought into a fair way towards a 
compromise, but the treaty was broken off again by the arts of 
Bishop Ward. 

7. The next attempt to reform the Church of England, had 
not only the concurrence of some worthy bishops, who did real 
honour to their order, and of a number of pious and learned 
divines in inferior stations, but was undertaken under the 
auspicious authority of William III., in the year 16S9. 

By a fatal mistake, it was agreed, that the matter should 
pass through the forms of convocation, where it met with an 
effectual defeat from the zeal and activity of a faction in the 
Lower House, led on indeed, as was suspected, by some of the 
bench, particularly Mew and Sprat. 

One single circumstance will serve to characterize the spirit 
and piety of these convocation-men : 

" We," say they, " being the representatives of a formed 
established Church, do not think fit to mention the word 
religion, any further than it is the religion of some formed 
established church." 

8. This account is abridged from Archdeacon Blackburne's 
Confessional. The worthy Archdeacon himself afterwards 
made the last equally unavailing effort, by the leading part 



XOTES. 



which he took in forwarding- the petition for relief in the matter 
of Subscription, presented to parliament in Feb. 1772. The 
result fully justified the remark he had previously made on 
former attempts : 

" Here then hath Terminus fixed his pedestal, and here 
hath he kept his station for two whole centuries. We are just 
where the Acts of Uniformity left us, and where, for aught that 
appears in the temper of the times, the last trumpet will find 
us." 



NOTE (f)— Page 40. 

It was some time ago calculated by a clergyman that there 
were 500 heresies, and supposing each article fatal to one, still 
461 were left unchecked by the Church of Eugland. The 
number must have increased considerably of late. Such is the 
inefficacy of the established Creed, that every description of 
heretics, not only those who were overlooked, but those who are 
anathematized, are among its subscribers ; and in addition to 
every controversy which they were vainly designed to suppress, 
but which has raged as much in the Church as elsewhere, the 
Articles, &c. have produced several, which have been long and 
furious. Almost every important tenet of the Church has been 
impugned by those who have enjoyed her highest dignities. 
The doctrine of the article on Original Sin, by Bishop Taylor, 
who affirms that " our nature is not contrary to virtue;" those 
on the Trinity, by Dr. Clarke ; on the divinity and pre-existence 
of Christ, by Bishop Law; on the descent into heik by Dr. 
Barrow; on predestination, &c. by Archbishop ! aud and the 
Arminians; on the Old Testament, as to the knowledge of a 
future state, by Bishop Warburton, &c. &c. 

From generation to generation it has been contested amongst 
the Established Clergy whether they are bound to believe the 
Articles to which they subscribe ! The liberal and heretical 
party has sometimes taken the affirmative of this question, to 



278 



NOTES, 



procure a reformation ; and at other times the negative, to 
justify their remaining in the church when such reformation 
became hopeless. Both as a moral and legal question it is of 
easy solution. Paley's chapter on this subject, in his Moral 
Philosophy, might very properly be headed with a Frenchman's 
definition of casuistry, i( IS art de chicaner avec Dieu" 
Jeremy Taylor observes of this latitudinarian mode, " This is 
the last remedy, but it is the worst ; it hath in it something of 
craft, but very little of ingenuity ; and if it can serve the ends 
of peace or of external charity, or of a phantastic concord ; yet 
it cannot serve the ends of truth, and holiness, and Christian 
simplicity." As a legal question, Bennet (Essay on the 
Articles) produces what he rightly calls " a decisive authority, 
which would silence all scruples, if the matter were otherwise 
obscure and doubtful My Lord Chief Justice Coke has* these 
words: 1 heard Wray, Chief Justice in the King's Bench, 
Pasch. 23 Eliz. report, that where one Smyth subscribed to 
the said Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, ivith this addition 
(so far forth as the same were agreeable to the word of God), it 
was resolved by him, and all the judges of England, that this 
subscription was not according to the statute of 13 Eliz. 
Because the statute required an absolute subscription, and 
this subscription made it conditional ; and that this act ivas 
made for avoiding of diversity of opinions, tyc. And by this 
addition the party might by his own private opinion, take 
some of them to be against the word of God, and by this 
means diversity of opinions should not be avoided, ivhich was 
the scope of the statute, and the very act itself made touching 
subscription hereby of none effect. 

NOTE (g)— Page 45. 

The following extracts will shew that the concessions in the 
text as to lying wonders, and forbidding to marry, are made 



* Instit.IV. Cap. Ixxiv. p. 324. 



XOTES. 



279 



rather to the practice of the Church than to its original consti- 
tution. The first is from an article by Mr. Dodson, in the 
second volume of " Commentaries and Essays; by the Society 
for promoting' the Knowledge of the Scriptures." 

" One of the characteristics of the antichristian power is, 
that he would lay claim, however falsely and presumptuously, 
to a capacity of working miracles. 2 Thess. ii. 9 ; Rev. xiii. 
13, 14. It may be demanded, whether this mark is to be found 
any where but in the Church of Rome. I will confine my ob- 
servations to that of England. I apprehend the following 
powers to be unquestionably miraculous: 1. That of casting- 
out demons : 2. That of healing the sick by a touch : 3. That 
of imparling the Holy Spirit : 4. That of forgiving sins. 

" 1. It is written,, Mark xvi. 17, 18, 4 And these signs,' mira- 
culous proofs of a divine communication, < shall follow them 
that believe : in my name they shall cast out devils; they shall 
lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.' We read in 
the lxxii>id canon of the Church of England, ' Nor shall any 
minister, without such licence, [of the bishop of the diocese, 
first obtained and had under his hand and seal,] attempt upon 
any pretence whatsoever, either of possession or obsession, by 
fasting and prayer, to cast out any devil or devils, under pain 
of the imputation of imposture or cozenage, and deposition 
from the ministry.' This clause most evidently supposes a 
power in the bishop to grant a licence by which a minister 
might cast oui devils; and to restrain any one, who should 
afterwards appear with a divine commission, from exercising it 
in this way. Otherwise, why did not the canon reprobate all 
such pretensions in the most absolute and unqualified terms, as 
most glaring deceptions? How could the Church herself, without 
the imputation of cozenage and imposture, intimate, that she 
has any authority to grant a licence, or withhold it, to enable 
or disqualify ministers in the performance of tins miracle? 
She assumes in this instance as perfect a right as she does to 
license preachers in her visible human establishment. 

" 2. With respect to healing the sick, we know that there 



280 



NOTES. 



was an office for that purpose in the Liturgy of the Church of 
England, in which the infirm person was supposed to be healed 
by the imposition of the royal hands, and a piece of gold about 
their necks. The portion of Scripture appointed to be read on 
this occasion was Mark xvi. 14 — 20. If this office is now 
omitted in our Prayer-Books, I know not by what authority it 
is done ; and conceive that it still continues, as much as ever, a 
part of our parliamentary religion ; and the gift, as much as 
ever, a part of the royal prerogative. 

44 3. With respect to the gift of the Holy Ghost, by means of 
the hands of the apostles, it was evidently miraculous, and 
attested frequently by the persons on whom it fell speaking 
with tongues. In the rite of confirmation the bishop declares, 
in an address to the Almighty, that he (God) has vouchsafed 
to regenerate these his servants, by water and the Holy Ghost, 
arid to give them forgiveness of all their sins. Then laying 
his hand upon the head of each particular person, he certifies 
him, by that sign of God's favour and gracious goodness 
towards him. We are told, that what the bishop then does, in 
laying on his hands, is after the example of the holy apostles ; 
which evidently means, with the same intention, and to produce 
the same effect.^ 

The Ordination Service and the Visitation of the Sick, on 
which the writer then proceeds to animadvert, are already 
noticed in the Lecture. 

Queen Elizabeth seems to have been strongly disposed to 
retain the celibacy of the priesthood in her Reformed Church. 
That it was not absolutely enjoined, is said to have been pre- 
vented by the interposition of Cecil. Made a matter of diffi- 
culty it certainly was. The following regulation is copied from 
" Injunctions given by the Queen's Majesty." 1559. 

" Item, although there be no prohibition by the word of 
God, nor any example of the primitive church, but that the 
priests and ministers of the church may lawfully, for the 
avoyding of fornication, have an honest and sober wife, and 
that for the same purpose, the same was by Act of Parliament* 



NOTES, 



281 



in the time of our deare brother King Edward the Sixth, made 
lawfull : whereuppon a great number of the cleargie of this 
realme, were then married, and so yet continue. Yet because 
there hath grown offence, and some slaunder to the church, by 
lacke of discreet and sober behaviour in many ministers of the 
church, both in choosing of their wives, and in indiscreete living 
with them, the remedie whereof is necessarie to be sought ; it 
- is thought, therefore, very necessarie, that no manner of priest 
or deacon shall hereafter take to his wife, any maner of woman, 
without the advice and allowance first had, upon good examir 
nation, by the bishop of the same diocesse, and two justices of 
the peace of the same sheyre, dwelling next to the place where 
the same woman hath made her most abode before her manage, 
nor without the good will of the parents of the sayd woman, if 
shee have any living, or two of the next of her kinsfolkes, or 
for lack of knowledge of such, of her maister or mistresse 
where shee serveth. And before he shall be contracted in any 
place, he shall make a good and certaine proofe thereof to the 
minister, or to the congregation assembled for that purpose, 
which shall be upon some holy day, where divers may bee 
present. And if any shall do otherwise, that then they shall 
not be permitted to minister either the word of (or) the sacra- 
ments of the church, nor shall be capable of any ecclesiastical 
benefice. And for the manner of manages of any bishops, 
the same shall be allowed and approved by the metropolitane 
of the province, and also by such commissioners as the Queen's 
Majestie shall thereunto appoint. And if any maister or deane, 
or any head of any colledge, shall purpose to marrie, the same 
shall not be allowed, but by such to whom the visitation of the 
same doth properly belong, who shall in any wise provide that 
the same tend not to the hinderance of their house." 

NOTE (h)— Page 48. 

" The Church-of- England man is a sectarisl, partly Papist, 
partly Protestant. He is a Protestant, because he asserts the 

\ 



282 NOTES. 

sufficiency of the Scriptures. He is a Papist, because he, in 
the same breath, requires assent to certain additions to those 
Scriptures. He is a Protestant, because he has separated from 
the Church of Rome upon the plea of the right of private 
judgment. He is a Papist, because he refuses the same liberty 
of separation to his brethren. He is a Protestant, because- he 
maintains the unrighteousness of persecution, when he is himself 
the sufferer. He is a Papist, because, when opportunity offers, 
he has always shewn himself a persecutor in his turn. The 
Church-of-England clergyman also is a Papist, because in his 
Liturgy is found the Athanasian Creed. He is a Protestant, 
because, though enjoined by temporal and spiritual authority to 
recite it monthly, he hardly ever reads it. He is a Papist, 
because he subscribes the Thirty-nine Articles ; and he is a 
Protestant, because he does not believe them." — Jebb's Works, 
III. p. 257. 

NOTE (i)— Page 48, 

The greatest statesman of modern times has described the 
Tiews of the faction, to which the Nonconformists, from a blind 
and bigotted hatred of Popery, sacrificed the cause of religious 
liberty, so as to throw great light on that and other periods of 
English history. 

" The general character of the party at this time appears to 
have been a high notion of the king's constitutional power, to 
which was superadded, a kind of religious abhorrence of all 
resistance to the monarch, not only in cases where such resist- 
ance was directed against the lawful prerogative, but even in 
opposition to encroachments, which the monarch might make 
beyond the extended limits which they assigned to his prero- 
gative. But these tenets, and still more, the principle of 
conduct naturally resulting from them, were confined to the 
civil, as contra-distinguished from the ecclesiastical polity of 
the country. In church matters, they neither acknowledged 



NOTES. 



283 



any very high authority in the crown, nor were they willing to 
submit to any royal encroachment on that side; and a steady 
attachment to the Church of England, with a proportionable 
aversion to all Dissenters from it, whether Catholic or Protes- 
tant, was almost universally prevalent among them. A due 
consideration of these distinct features in the character of a 
party so powerful in Charles's and James's time, and even when 
it was lowest (that is, during the reigns of the two first princes 
of the house of Brunswick), by no means inconsiderable, is ex- 
ceedingly necessary to the right understanding of English 
history. It affords a clue to many passages otherwise unintel- 
ligible. For want of a proper attention to this circumstance, 
some historians have considered the conduct of the Tories in 
promoting the Revolution, as an instance of great inconsistency. 
Some have supposed, contrary to the clearest evidence, that 
their notions of passive obedience, even in civil matters, were 
limited, and that their support of the government of Charles 
and James was founded upon a belief, that those princes would 
never abuse their prerogative for the purpose of introducing 
arbitrary sway. But this hypothesis is contrary to the evidence 
both of their declaration and their conduct. Obedience without 
reserve, an abhorrence of all resistance, as contrary to the tenets 
of their religion, are the principles which they professed in 
their addresses, their sermons, and their decrees at Oxford ; and 
surely nothing short of such principles could make men esteem 
the latter years of Charles the Second, and the opening of the 
reign of his successor, an sera of national happiness and exem- 
plary government. Yet this is the representation of that period, 
which is usually made by historians and other writers of the 
church party. 4 Never were fairer promises on one side, nor 
greater generosity on the other,' says Mr. Echard. 4 The king 
had as yet in no instance invaded the rights of his subjects/ 
says the author of the Caveat against the Whigs. Thus, as 
long as James contented himself with absolute power in civil 
matters, and did not make use of his authority against the 
church, every thing went smooth and easy ; nor is it necessary, 



284 NOTES* 

in order to account for the satisfaction of the parliament and 
people, to have recourse to any implied compromise, by which 
the nation was willing to yield its civil liberties as the price of 
retaining its religious constitution. The truth seems to be, 
that the king, in asserting his unlimited power, rather fell in 
with the humour of the prevailing party, than offered any 
violence to it. Absolute power in civil matters, under the 
specious names of monarchy and prerogative, formed a most 
essential part of the Tory creed ; but the order in which Church 
and King are placed in the favourite device of the party, is not 
accidental, and is well calculated to shew the genuine principles 
of such among them as are not corrupted by influence. Ac- 
cordingly, as the sequel of this reign will abundantly shew, 
when they found themselves compelled to make an option, 
they preferred, without any degree of inconsistency, their first 
idol to their second, and when they could not preserve both 
church and king, declared for the former." — Fox's History? 
p. 153. 

NOTE ( k )— Page 75. 

This quotation is from " A Letter to the Rev. Dr. Goddard, 
occasioned by his Sermon, preached August 8, 1811, at the 
Triennial Visitation of the Lord Bishop of Chichester. By a 
Layman." In a sermon delivered at the consecration of the 
Bishop of London, Dr. G. replied to some parts of this work, 
though, according to the most approved system of controversial 
tactics, without giving his hearers, or readers, any direction 
where to find the heretical propositions which he undertook to 
refute. As he had administered the antidote, why send them 
to batten on the poison ? This sermon called forth a " second 
letter" from the Layman. In both these productions, the claim 
of every man to Christian privileges who believes in the Mes- 
siaship of Jesus ; the inefficiency of creeds to secure uniformity 
of opinion ; the innocency of heresy, unless that term be con- 



NOTES. 



285 



nected with party spirit, and not merely descriptive of erroneous 
opinions; alliance between church and state; the character of 
the clergy ; and other topics discussed or alluded to in this 
Lecture, are touched with the hand of a master. 

NOTE (?)— Page 119. 

Orthodoxy, as well as heresy, has its foreign alliances ; 
witness Bishop Horsley's pedigree of unchristian Trinitarianism', 
in a charge to his clergy. " The inquiry becomes more im- 
portant, when it is discovered, that these were notions by no 
means peculiar to the Platonic school ; that the Platonists pre- 
tended to be no more than the expositors of a more ancient 
doctrine, which is traced from Plato to Parmenides ; from Par- 
menides to his masters of the Pythagorean sect ; from the 
Pythagoreans to Orpheus, the earliest of the Grecian mysta- 
gogues ; from Orpheus to the secret lore of the Egyptian 
priests, in which the foundations of the Orphic theology were 
laid. Similar notions of a triple principle prevailed in the 
Persian and Chaldean theology ; and vestiges even of a Trinity 
were discernible in the Roman superstition in a very late age. 
This worship the Romans had received from their Trojan an- 
cestors ; for the Trojans brought it with them into Italy from 
Phrygia. In Phrygia it was introduced by Dardanus, so early 
as in the ninth century, after Noah's flood. Dardanus carried it 
with him from Samothrace ; where the personages that were 
the objects of it were worshipped under the Hebrew name of 
the Cabirim. Who these Cabirim might be, has been a matter 
of unsuccessful inquiry to many learned men. The utmost 
that is known with certainty is, that they were originally three, 
and were called by way of eminence, the great or mighty ones ; 
for that is the import of the Hebrew name. And of the like 
import is their Latin appellation, Penates. Thus, the joint 
worship of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, the triad of the Roman 
capitol, is traced to that of the three mighty ones in Samothrace; 



286 



NOTES. 



which was established in that island, at what precise time it is 
impossible to determine, but earlier, if Eusebius may be cre- 
dited, than the days of Abraham." 



NOTE (m)— Page 123. * 



An exception should have been made of the brief, but inte- 
resting" account of some of the principal sufferers for the Uni- 
^tarian cause, in Mr. Belsham's Sermon on the Repeal of the 
Penal Laws against Antitrinitarians. " The history of virtuous, 
upright minds," says Mr. Lindsey, in his Historical View of 
the Unitarian Doctrine, t( and inquirers after truth, emerging 
out of the long night of antichristian darkness, seeking the 
great Source of being and benevolent Father of all ; and having 
found Him, yielding themselves to tortures and death, rather 
than disown Him, — presents the most instructive, awful and 
animating spectacle and lesson, of all others." Mr. L.'s work 
but very partially accomplished this object. We stand in great 
need of an history of Unitariauism. Such a work might be 
thrown into a series of biographical portraits, connecting the 
most important events of each age or country with some leading 
character commencing with those who, in the second, third 
and fourth centuries, withstood the tide of corruption then 
flowing in upon the Church ; including the Polish and other 
continental reformers, and the advocates for truth and liberty 
in the Establishment of our own country ; detailing, where au- 
thentic information exists, the different processes by which 
the faith of eminent individuals was changed or formed ; exhi- 
biting at large the progress of Unitarianism among the poor, 
especially in the conversion of whole societies, as Rossendale, 
&c. ; and concluding with a complete view of its present state, 
as to numbers, institutions, legal situation, public opinion, &c. 
This plan would not only embrace much to command the atten- 
tion of the theological inquirer, but would satisfactorily repel 
many objections to Unitarianism ; and by furnishing the youthful 



NOTES. 



287 



part of our societies with information antl examples of the most 
attractive description, would excite attachment to the religion 
of their fathers, veneration for its confessors and advocates, 
interest in its cause, and knowledge, from facts, of the best 
means for promoting its diffusion. We have men well qualified 
for such a task. I commend it to their attention. 

NOTE ( m)— Page 171. 

The horrors of war are but slightly adverted to, either in the 
Lecture or the Appendix, for the obvious reason that the general 
design and the limits of the Lectures neither required nor per- 
mitted any extended illustration of them. In various publi- 
cations on the events of the late war, and especially in Labaume's 
Russian Campaign, the reader, whose nerves will allow the 
steady contemplation of the most appalling pictures of human 
wickedness and misery, may " sup full of horrors." Some 
extracts are introduced from an article in the Edinburgh Review 
for February 1815, on the above-mentioned work, not more on 
account of the facts, than of the remarks appended to them, 
which will not be ascribed to the influence of religious enthu- 
siasm, or the weakness of an impracticable benevolence. 

" Our author, who was posted at a small village on the right 
in reserve, here learned that the town (Smolensko) had been 
stormed, after a sanguinary combat, during which it was set 
on fire by the Russians. On the 19th of August, he entered 
the place with his corps, and his description of the scene which 
he witnessed, presents an affecting picture of the horrors of 
war. ' In every direction we marched over scattered ruins and 
dead bodies. Palaces, still burning, offered to our sight only 
walls half destroyed by the flames, and thick among the frag- 
ments were the blackened carcasses of the wretched inhabitants, 
whom the fire had consumed. The few houses that remained 
were completely filled by the soldiery, while at the door stood 
the miserable proprietor, without an asylum, deploring the 



288 NOTES. 

death of his children and the loss of his fortune. The churches 
alone afforded some consolation to the unhappy victims who had 
no other shelter. The cathedral, celebrated through Europe, 
and held in great veneration by the Russians, became the refuge 
of the unfortunate beings who had escaped the flames. In this 
church, and round its altars, were seen whole families extended 
on the ground.' " 

After the battle of the Moskwa, " the ground, for about the 
space of a square league, was literally covered with the dead 
and wounded. In many places, the bursting of shells had pro- 
miscuously heaped together men and horses. The fire of the 
howitzers had been so destructive, that heaps of bodies lay 
scattered over the plain ; and where the ground was not encum- 
bered with the slain, it was covered with broken lances, muskets, 
helmets and cuirasses, or with grape-shot and bullets, as nu- 
merous as hailstones after a violent storm. ' But the most 
horrid spectacle (continues our author) was the interior of the 
ravines, where almost all the wounded who were able to drag 
themselves along, had taken refuge, to avoid further injury. 
These miserable creatures, heaped one upon another, and 
swimming in their blood, uttered the most heart-rending groans. 
They frequently invoked death with piercing cries, and eagerly 
besought us to put an end to their agonies.' Such are some of 
the details of this glorious battle, which we lay before our 
readers, not for the purpose of shocking their feelings, but 
because we think they serve to place what is called military 
glory in its true light, and thus, in some measure, to correct 
those false impressions under which mankind have been in all 
ages so much blinded to the true nature of the warrior's exploits. 
They would answer a still greater purpose, if they would tend 
to soften the hearts of those cold and calculating politicians, 
who make war without any consideration of its miseries, and 
regard the plea of humanity as a vulgar common-place, alto- 
gether unfit to be taken into the account of their magnanimous 
deliberations." 

During the conflagration of Moscow, the hospitals, which 



NOTES. 



289 



contained 20,000 wounded Russians, were consumed. " This 
(says Labaume) offered a harrowing and dreadful spectacle. 
Almost all of these miserable creatures perished. A few who 
still lingered, were seen crawling, half-burnt, among the smoking 
ruins ; and others, groaning under heaps of dead bodies, en- 
deavoured in vain to extricate themselves from the horrible 
destruction which surrounded them." 

Often in the retreat, se they had no wood, and to make their 
fires they destroyed the houses in which the generals lodged ; 
sometimes, therefore, when we awoke in the morning, the 
village which we had seen the night before had disappeared, 
and towns which to-day were untouched, would form on the 
morrow one vast conflagration." 

The concluding remark of the Reviewer especially deserves 
attention : f< By its very constitution, an army seems to be the 
natural instrument of violence and injustice. A thorough-bred 
soldier is the mere creature of command. His warrant is, in 
all cases, the order of his superior, to whose views he blindly 
conforms, however adverse they may be to the peace and hap- 
piness of society ; while the occupations in which he is engaged 
have a natural tendency to produce, in the lower orders, a 
disdain and impatience of peaceful industry ; in the higher, a 
restless and turbulent ambition ; and in both, a brutal contempt 
for the comfort and the feelings of every other description of 
men." 

In the Christian Reformer for July 1815, are extracts from 
the letters of an officer serving in Spain and the South of 
France, which amply shew that war is much the same in the 
miseries it causes, wheresoever and by whomsoever waged. 

A work of fiction, published by Louis Bonaparte, has some 
passages upon this subject, which are curious, as coming from 
one who had filled a throne, and which are expressed in a tone 
and manner strongly indicative of their being the language of 
truth and real feeling. He is describing a field of battle : " A 
thousand voices addressed me in the most heart-rending manner, 
imploring assistance. One expired in asking for it; another 
■ V • - u 



290 NOTES. 

in repulsing, through the convulsions of death, the proffered 
hand ! Our own wounded could not be distinguished from 
those of the enemy. I thought myself on those infernal plains, 
where the guilty groan for ever, and have no resource, because 
they are watched over by no providence ! I know not what 
secret voice arose within me against war.— -I have seen a father, 
a brother and a son, even after the heat of battle, cut the throat 
of a defenceless old man ; I have seen the brains of an infant 
beat out in its cradle ; and a young girl dying under bloody 
embraces. I have seen men go like sheep to certain death, led 
by the phantoms of honour and glory. I have seen men consi- 
dered as vile and brittle instruments, which other men threw 
away, and broke to pieces without regret. I have heard a 
minister of state say, that he had spent so many men in a 
campaign ! " 

I will only prolong this note by a tale from Ferguson's 
History of Civil Society, the recollection of which was sug* 
gested by the mercantile mode of speaking attributed to 
statesmen by the Ex-king of Holland : 

" In small rude societies, the individual finds himself attacked 
in every national war ; and none can propose to devolve his 
defence on another. ' The King of Spain is a great prince,' 
said an American chief to the Governor of Jamaica, who was 
preparing a body of troops to join an enterprise against the 
Spaniards; 'do you propose to make war upon so great a 
king with so small a force?' Being told that the forces he saw 
were to be joined by troops from Europe, and that the governor 
could then command no more : ' who are these, then,' said the 
American, 'who form this crowd of spectators? Are they not 
your people ? And why do you not all go forth to so great a 
war?' He was answered, that the spectators were merchants, 
and other inhabitants, who took no part in the service. s Would 
they be merchants still,' continued this statesman, ' if the King 
of Spain was to attack you here? For my part, I do not think 
that merchants should be permitted to live in any country; when 
I go to war 9 I leave nobody at home but the women.' It should 



NOTES. 



291 



seem that this simple warrior considered merchants as a kind 
of neutral persons, who took no part in the quarrels of their 
country ; and that he did not know how much war itself may 
be made a subject of traffic; what mighty armies may be put 
in motion from behind the counter; how often human blood is, 
without any national animosity, bought and sold for bills of 
exchange, and how often the prince, the nobles and the states- 
men, in many a polished nation, might, in his account, be con- 
sidered as merchants." 



NOTE (n)— Page 183. 

(( The ancient republics were almost in perpetual war. The 
maxims of ancient war were much more destructive than those 
of modern; chiefly by the distribution of plunder in which the 
soldiers were indulged. The battles of antiquity, both by their 
duration and their resemblance of single combats, were wrought 
up to a degree of fury, quite unknown to later ages. Nothing 
could then engage the combatants to give quarter, but the hopes 
of profit, by making slaves of their prisoners. In civil wars, 
as we learu from Tacitus, the battles were the most bloody, 
because the prisoners were not slaves. 

" What a stout resistance must be made, when the vanquished 
expected so hard a fate ! How inveterate the rage, when the 
maxims of war were in every respect so bloody and severe ! 

" Instances are very frequent in ancient history, of cities 
besieged, whose inhabitants, rather than open their gates, 
murdered their wives and children, and rushed themselves on a 
voluntary death, sweetened, perhaps, with a little prospect of 
revenge upon the enemy. Greeks, as well as Barbarians, have 
been wrought up to this degree of fury. 

" Sometimes the wars in Greece, says Plutarch, were carried 
on entirely by inroads and robberies and piracies. Such a 
method of war must be more destructive, in small states, than 
the bloodiest battles and sieges. 

u2 



29% 



NOTES. 



" The only cartel I remember in ancient history, is that 

betwixt Demetrius Poliorcetes and the Rhodians ; when it was 
agreed, that a free citizen should be restored for 1000 drachmas, 
a slave bearing arms for 500." — ( Hume's Essay on the Po- 
pulousness of Ancient Nations. J 

NOTE (o)— Page 185. 

Summary View of Wars in England, occasioned by dis- 
puted Claims of the Croam, from Sidney's Discourses on 
Government. 

'* But the miseries of England, upon the like occasions, 
surpass all. William the Norman was no sooner dead, but the 
nation was rent in pieces by his son Robert, contesting with his 
younger sons, William and Henry, for the crown. They being 
all dead, and their sons, the like happened between Stephen 
and Maud: Henry the Second was made king to terminate all 
disputes, but it proved a fruitless expedient. Such as were 
more scandalous, and not less dangerous, did soon arise between 
him and his sons ; who, besides the evils brought upon the 
nation, vexed him to death by their rebellion. The reigns of 
John and Henry the Third were yet more tempestuous. Edward 
the Second's lewd, foolish, infamous and detestable government, 
ended in his deposition and death, to which he was brought by 
his wife and son. Edward the Third employed his own and 
his subjects' valour against the French and Scots ; but whilst 
the foundations were out of order, the nation could never receive 
any advantage by their victories. All was calculated for the 
glory and turned to the advantage of one man. He being 
dead, all that the English held in Scotland and in France, was 
lost through the baseness of his successor, with more blood" 
than it had been gained ; and the civil wars raised by his wick- 
edness and madness, ended as those of Edward had done. The 
peace of Henry the Fourth's reign was interrupted by dangerous 
civil wars ; and the victory obtained at Shrewsbury, had not 



NOTES . 



293 



perhaps secured him on the throne, if his death had not pre- 
vented new troubles. Henry the Fifth acquired such repu- 
tation by his virtue and victories, that none dared to invade the 
crown during his life; but immediately after his death, the 
storms prepared against his family broke out with the utmost 
violence. His son's weakness encouraged Richard, Duke of 
York, to set up a new title, which produced such mischiefs as 
hardly any people has suffered, unless upon the like occasion ; 
for, besides the slaughter of many thousands of the people, 
and especially of those who had been accustomed to arms, the 
devastation of the best parts of the kingdom, and the loss of 
all that our kings had inherited in France, or gained by the 
blood of their subjects, four score princes of the blood, as 
Philip de Commines calls them, died in battle, or under the 
hand of the hangman. Many of the most noble families were 
extinguished; others lost their most eminent men. Three 
kings, and two presumptive heirs of the crown, were murdered, 
and the nation brought to that shameful exigence, to set up a 
young man to reign over them, who had no better cover for his 
sordid extraction than a Welsh pedigree, that might shew how 
a tailor was descended from Prince Arthur, Cadwallader, and 
Brutus. But the wounds of the nation were not to be healed 
with such a plaister. He could not rely upon a title made up 
of such stuff, and patched with a marriage to a princess of a 
very questionable birth. His own meanness inclined him to 
hate the nobility ; and thinking it to be as easy for them to 
take the crown from him, as to give it to him, he industriously 
applied himself to glean up the remainders of the house of 
York, from whence a competitor might arise, and by all means 
to crush those who were most able to oppose him. This ex- 
ceedingly weakened the nobility, who held the balance between 
him and the Commons, and was the first step towards the dis- 
solution of our ancient government; but he was so far from 
settling the kingdom in peace, that such rascals as Perkin 
Warbeck and Simnel were able to disturb it. The reign of 
Henry the Eighth was turbulent and bloody; that of" Mary, 



294 



NOTES. 



furious, and such as had brought us into subjection to the most 
powerful, proud and cruel nation at that time in the world, if 
God had not wonderfully protected us. Nay, Edward the 
Sixth and Queen Elizabeth, notwithstanding the natural ex- 
cellency of their dispositions, and their knowledge of the truth 
in matters of religion, were forced by that which men call 
6 jealousy of state,' to foul their hands so often with illustrious 
blood, that if their reigns deserve to be accounted amongst the 
most gentle of monarchies, they were more heavy than the 
government of any commonwealth in time of peace; and yet 
their lives were never secure against such as conspired against 
them upon the account of title.'.' 



NOTE ( p )— Page 196. 

That Christianity would surely induce its converts to relin- 
quish the profession of hired soldiers, and yet that it contains 
no explicit prohibition of that profession, is not more to be 
wondered at, than that without a single prohibition, (except in 
the case of bishops, 1 Tim. iii. 2,) it should have abolished 
polygamy. The result was, perhaps, more valuable when pro- 
duced by the individual, unprompted perception of the incompa- 
tibility. It is also possible that there might be some indulgence 
shewn to those who were already in bondage ; at least, a modern, 
historian is of opinion, how correctly the reader must judge, 
that such toleration, in the latter case, would have aided a pro- 
selyting attempt made some years ago in Jamaica. 

" In the course of an attempt to convert the Maroons to 
Christianity, polygamy was considered, and the Maroon told, 
that as a Christian, he could not have more than one wife. 
Having been attached* to two for some time, and having children 
by both * Top, Massa Governor,' said he, * top lilly bit; you 
say me muss forsake my wife.'-— 4 Only one of them.' — * Which 
dat one? Jesus Christ say so? Gar A'mighty say so ? No, 
no, Massa ; Gar A'mighty good ; he no tell somebody he mus 



NOTES. 



29*5 



forsake him wife and children. Somebody no wicked for forsake 
him wife ! No, Massa, dis here talk no do for me.' " — ( Dallas's 
History of the Maroons, Vol. I. p. 113.) 

It was with an ill grace that this requisition was made of 
the Maroons, while such an example was before their eyes as 
the same author has described : 

" The white people on estates have as many sable wives as 
they please, and change them as often as they please ; and there 
are few properties in the West Indies, on which families of 
mulattoes have not been left by each succeeding overseer and 
bookkeeper. A father parts for life with his child, whom in 
its very birth he consigns to slavery, with as much indifference 
as with his old shoes."— (Ibid. Vol. I. 127.) 

NOTE (q)— Page 196. 

" Valour, or active courage, is, for the most part, constitu- 
tional, and therefore can have no more claim to moral merit, 
than wit, beauty, health, strength, or any other endowment of 
the mind or body ; and so far is it from producing any salutary 
effects by introducing peace, order, or happiness into society, 
that it is the usual perpetrator of all the violences, which, from 
retaliated injuries, distract the world with bloodshed and de- 
vastation. It is the engine by which the strong are enabled 
to plunder the weak, the proud to trample upon the humble, 
and the guilty to oppress the innocent ; it is the chief instru- 
ment which ambition employs in her unjust pursuits of wealth 
and power, and is, therefore, so much extolled by her votaries ; 
it was, iudeed, congenial with the religion of Pagans, whose 
gods were, for the most part, made out of deceased heroes, 
exalted t«> heaven as a reward for the mischiefs which they had 
perpetrated upon earth, and therefore, with them, this was the 
first of viitues, and had even engrossed that denomination to 
itself ; but whatever merit it may have assumed among Pagans, 
with Christians it can pretend to none, and few or none are the 



296 



NOTES. 



occasions in which they are permitted to exert it. They are stF 
far from being allowed to inflict evil, that they are forbid even 
to resist it; they are so far from being encouraged to revenge 
injuries, that one of their first duties is to forgive them ; so far 
from being incited to destroy their enemies, that they are com- 
manded to love them, and to serve them to the utmost of their 
power. If Christian nations, therefore, were nations of Chris- 
tians, all war would be impossible, and unknown amongst them, 
and valour could be neither of use or estimation, and therefore 
could never have a place in the catalogue of Christian virtues, 
being irreconcileable with all its precepts. I object not to the 
praise and honours bestowed on the valiant ; they are the least 
. tribute which can be paid them by those who enjoy safety and 
affluence by the intervention of their dangers and sufferings; I 
assert only, that active courage can never be a Christian virtue, 
because a Christian can have nothing to do with it. Passive 
courage is, indeed, frequently and properly inculcated by this 
meek and suffering religion, under the titles of patience and 
resignation ; a real and substantial virtue this, and a direct 
contrast to the former: for passive courage arises from the 
noblest dispositions of the human mind, from a contempt of 
misfortunes, pain and death, and a confidence in the protection 
of the Almighty; active, from the meanest, — from passion, 
vanity and self-dependence : passive courage is derived from a 
zeal for truth, and a perseverance in duty; active is the offspring 
of pride and revenge, and the parent of cruelty and injustice : 
in short, passive courage is the resolution of a philosopher; 
active, the ferocity of a savage. Nor is this more incompatible 
with the precepts than with the object of this religion, which 
is the attainment of the kingdom of heaven ; for valour is not 
that sort of violence, by which that kingdom is to be taken ; 
nor are the turbulent spirits of heroes and conquerors admissible 
into those regions of peace, subordination and tranquillity .." — - 
(Soame Jenyns on the Internal Evidence of Christianity^. 
Prop, 3 J 



NOTES. 



297 



NOTE ( r )-~ Page 204. 

The conclusion of Montesquieu's chapter on War ought in 
justice to be subjoined: 

" Le droit de la guerre derive done de la necessite et du juste 
rigide. Si ceux qui dirigent la conscience ou les conseils des 
princes, ne se tiennent pas la 3 tout est perdu : et lorsqu 1 on se 
fondera sur des principes arbitrages de gloire, de bienseance, 
d' utilite ; des flots de sang inonderont la terre. 

" Que T on ne parle pas surtout de la gloire du prince ; sa 
gloire seroit son orgueil ; c' est une passion et non pas un droit 
legitime. 

" II est vrai que la reputation de sa puissance pourroit aug- 
menter les forces de son Etat ; mats la reputation de sa justice 
les augmenteroit tout de meme." 

The passage quoted from Voltaire commences with a sneer 
at Machiavel, very unworthy of the author ; and for the omission 
of which the reader will be fully compensated, if his taste at all 
accord with mine, by a comparative sketch of Machiavel and 
Montesquieu, taken from one of the very few works of tem- 
porary politics, which are so written as to be permanently 
interesting : 

<c Machiavel, born and bred in tumultous and profligate times, 
and occupied in the affairs of a distempered republic, caught 
his first principles of politics from what he saw. Montesquieu, 
more happy in his birth and fortune, enjoying an early leisure, 
in a quiet and well-regulated monarchy, drew his first principles 
of politics from what he read. Yet, neither was the first given 
up to mere personal observation; nor the last to mere study: 
in the progress of life, Machiavel applied himself to books, 
and Montesquieu to men : yet, as was natural, their first habits 
prevailed, and gave to each his distinct and peculiar character. 
Hence, though both saw the internal and secret springs of 
government, (which, in my opinion, no writer but these two 



298 



NOTES. 



did ever fully comprehend or penetrate,) yet they saw them by 
different lights, and through different mediums. Machiavel's 
leading guide was fact ; Montesquieu's was philosophy. In 
consequence of this, simplicity forms the character of the one, 
refinement of the other. The speculative Frenchman forms a 
fine system, to the completion of which he sometimes tortures 
both argument and fact : the plain and downright Florentine 
builds on facts, independent of all system. The polite and 
disinterested Sage is warm in the praise of honesty : the active 
and penetrating Secretary, above praise or censure, gives a bold 
and striking picture of the ways of men. Hence, while the 
first gains every heart, by the force of moral sympathy; the 
latter hath been falsely detested, as the enemy of virtue and 
mankind. Machiavel is negligent, yet pure and strong, scorning 
the minuter graces of composition : Montesquieu is elegant, 
yet nervous ; and to the acuteness of the philosopher, adds the 
fire of the poet. Both were the friends of freedom and of 
man : both superior to the genius of their time and country : 
both truly great: the Florentine severe and great; the Frenchman 
great and amiable." — (Estimate of the Manners and Prin- 
ciples of the Times, by Dr. John Brown. 1757.) 

NOTE (s)— Page 213. 

My well-informed readers, if with such these pages should 
be honoured, are doubtless acquainted with Andrew Fletcher ; 
but I must just introduce him to my young friends. He was 
a Scotch gentleman, of large property, in the reign of Charles 
II., and having distinguished himself by his open and 
parliamentary opposition to the designs of James II., then 
Duke of York, was obliged to retire to Holland, and not 
appearing to a summons from the Privy Council, he was 
declared a traitor and his estate confiscated. He joined in the 
unfortunate attempt made by the Duke of Monmouth, and 
afterwards came over with William III. at the Revolution. 



NOTES. 299 

During that and the succeeding reign he distinguished himself 
in the Scotch Parliament by the jealousy with which he watched 
the encroachments of the crown, and the firmness and boldness 
with which he advocated popular rights. He is truly described 
as " steady in his principles, of nice honour, with abundance 
of learning: brave as the sword he wears, and bold as a lion: 
a sure friend, and an irreconcileable enemy : would lose his life 
readily to serve his country ; and would not do a base thing to 
save it. His thoughts are large as to religion, and could never 
be brought within the bounds of any particular sect. Nor will 
he be under the distinction of a Whig or Tory ; saying, those 
names are used to cloak the knaves of both. 1 ' — '* If ever a man 
proposes to serve and merit well of his country, let him place, 
his courage, zeal and constancy as a pattern before him; and 
think himself sufficiently applauded and rewarded, if he obtain 
the character of being like Andrew Fletcher, of Saltoun" 
(Vide Characters prefixed to his Works.) 

Fletcher must be enrolled in the honourable fraternity of 
Utopians, having tried his hand at reforming the world in a 
" Conversation concerning a right regulation of governments 
for the common good of mankind." He had himself been a 
military man, and during his banishment served several 
campaigns under the Duke of Lorrain ; but a principal object 
of his scheme was the abolition of wars, which he proposed to 
accomplish by so modelling governments, as to render them 
powerful in defence, but incapable or unfit to make coriquests. 
His favourite idea was that of small, independent states in 
federal union. His political works contain, besides the 
** Conversation" referred to, two discourses on the affairs of 
Scotland, one on Spain, one on Government with relation to 
Militias, and several parliamentary speeches. -AH are charac- 
terized by powerful and philosophical reasoning, extensive 
information, sound patriotism, and nervous eloquence. Towards 
the close of Queen Anne's reign, he introduced a bill into the 
Scotch Parliament, the object of which was, to provide 
effectual limitations of the royal prerogative before the 



300 



NOTES. 



declaration of her successor. The first clause of this bill is 
curious, as it couples with a limitation of the duration of 
parliaments, now advocated by many, a change in their mode 
of proceeding 1 , which, though sometimes pleaded for as to 
electors, has not been thought of by any modern reformer, as 
far as I know, for the members themselves. The proposed 
enactment was, " that elections shall be made at every 
Michaelmas head-court for a new parliament every year; to sit 
the first of November next following, and adjourn themselves 
from time to time, till next Michaelmas : that they choose their 
own president, and that every thing shall be determined by 
ballotting, in place of voting." The collector of the pieces in 
this volume pithily observes, " Mr. Fletcher never wrote for a 
party ; and his writings, therefore, ought to last." 



NOTE (t)— Page 246. 

To illustrate the several particulars of this progression would 
require volumes, and perhaps their compilation would not be 
either an uninteresting or an useless task. Were I to begin 
extracts, I know not where they would* end, and a capricious 
selection would be worth nothing as proof. I must therefore 
content myself with a reference or two to books commonly 
accessible. 

The historical views commonly prefixed to works of science, 
or to be found in Dictionaries, Encyclopaedias, &c. abundantly 
demonstrate the superiority of the moderns. Astronomy has 
most of the appearance of an exception, and undoubtedly, great 
discoveries were made in this science at an early period, which 
afterwards sunk into oblivion. The more, however, that the 
claims set up for Egypt, India and China have been scrutinized^ 
the less tenable have they appeared. Every concession that 
can be required, would still leave unrivalled the brilliant progress 
made since the time -of Newton to the complete perfection of 



NOTES. 



301 



astronomy in the writings of La Place. Besides that almost 
every science has received immense accessions by discovery 
and invention, as the mathematics by logarithms, the fiuxional 
calculus, &c, two circumstances deserve notice: 1. They are 
generallv cultivated; the degree of scientific knowledge which 
would once have conferred celebrity and immortality, is now, 
in this country, attained by thousands of obscure individuals. 
2. The application of mathematical acquirements to the 
multiplication of the comforts of life has been wonderfully 
extended. There-partition of the overflowed lands of Egypt, 
(if the common story of the invention of Geometry be true,) 
and the defence of Syracuse by Archimedes, seem to be the 
only degradation (as the old philosophers deemed it) of the 
pure sciences to useful purposes, in antiquity. Now they are 
chiefly and most successfully cultivated on ac c ount of their 
subservience to such objects. 

Chemistry, with all its kindred studies, as Electricity, 
Galvanism, Mineralogy, Geology, &c. belongs solely to the 
moderns, and has already produced improvements in machi- 
nery, manufactures, and almost every department connected 
with the conveniences of life, beyond all calculation, and 
continues to produce them without intermission. 

In all that relates to facts, either as to number or certainty, 
or the use to -"be made of them, there can be no comparison. 
Geography, Chronology, Natural History, and even Civil 
History, have partaken largely of the general improvement. 
However interesting and valuable may be the historical 
productions of antiquity, nothing can be more evident than that 
they abound in contradictions, obscurities and falsehoods, from 
which the extensive research, accurate habits of weighing 
evidence, and the increased communication of different 
countries, render modern records comparatively exempt. 

In Oratory and Statuary, the palm must be conceded to 
Greece. Their religion, government, and perhaps climate, 
led them to early excellence. But the nature of these arts 
precludes progression by their admitting something like 



302 NOTES. 

absolute perfection, which may be soon attained, and can 
never be surpassed. Painting has limits, from the same 
cause, which it was reserved for a later age to reach. 

As to the general condition of society, Hume remarks that 
" to one who considers coolly of the subject, it will appear, 
that human nature, in general, really enjoys more liberty at 
present, in the most arbitrary governments of Europe, than it 
ever did during the most flourishing period of ancient times." 
Some very brief extracts from his Essay on the Populousness 
of Ancient Nations must here be allowed me. " The custom 
of exposing old, useless, or sick slaves in an island of the 
Tyber, there to starve, seems to have been pretty common in 
Rome. The ergastula, or dungeons, where slaves in chains 
were beat to work, were very common all over Italy. Nothing 
so common in all trials, even of civil causes, as to call for the 
evidence of slaves ; which was always extorted by the most 
exquisite torments. In ancient history we may always observe, 
where one party prevailed, whether the nobles or people, that 
they immediately butchered all of the opposite party they laid 
their hands on, and banished such as had been so fortunate as 
to escape their fury. No form of process, no law, no trial, no 
pardon. Trade, manufactures, industry, were no where in 
former ages so flourishing as they are at present in Europe. 
The only garb of the ancients, both for males and females, 
seems to have been a kind of flannel, which they wore 
commonly white or grey, and which they scoured as often as it 
grew dirty. I do not remember any passage m any ancient 
author, wherein the growth of any city is ascribed to the 
establishment of a manufacture, The commerce which is said 
to flourish is chiefly the exchange of those commmodities for 
which different soils and climates were suited." 

For ancient morals, both in theory and practice, see Priestley's 
Institutes Part ii. Ch. i.; and, on the Improvement of 
Mankind, Part iii. Ch. v. " On the future condition of the 
World in general," also, Law's Theory of Religion ; Aspland's 
Sermon on the Power of Truth; Murray on the Character of 



NOTES. 305 

Nations and Progress of Society ; Price's " Evidence for a 
future Period of Improvement," &c. 

Law seems to have been largely indebted to the " Apologie 
or Declaration of the Power and Providence of God in the 
Government of the World," by Geo. Hakewill, (who was for 
a time chaplain to Prince Charles, afterwards Charles I.,) 
which was written to refute " the common errour touching 
nature's perpetual and universal decay ;" and contains much 
curious matter, as well as many specimens of that genuine, 
though sometimes rather uncouth eloquence, with which our 
old writers abound. Part of his preface I would adopt for 
these Lectures: " If upon a serious perusall and ballancing of 
mine arguments any shall yet vary from mee, I quarrell him 
not, but hope wee may both injoy our opinions without any 
breach of faith or charity ; onely I say that the question is 
surely noble, and worthy to be discussed by a more learned 
penne, as being a disquisition touching the shippe wherein wee 
all sayle whether it bee staunch or no ; and heerein will be the 
tryall, Opinionum commenta dies delet, natures judicia con- 
jirmat, time weares out dr-ames of fancy, but strengthens the 
dictates of nature and truth, as the sunne beames being 
imprisoned, as it were, for a time, work thorowe a thicke mist 
though with some difficulty, but being once broken through, 
and the mist dispelled, they shine out and continue cleare." 
To his final conclusion I cannot so readily say, Amen : he ends 
thus : 

" Whatsoever I have written in this, or any other booke, 
I humbly submit to the censure of the Church of England." 

NOTE (u)— Page 247. 

The rude destroyers of the Roman empire reaped blessings 
which they little expected, or at first knew how to value, from 
the vanquished : the effect of their embracing the Christianity, 
such as it was, of that age, is thus described by Gibbon : — 

" Christianity, which opened the gates of heaven to the 



304 



NOTES. 



barbarians, introduced an important change in their moral and 
political condition. They received at the same time, the use 
of letters, so essential to a religion whose doctrines are 
contained in a sacred book, and while they studied the divine 
truth, their minds were insensibly enlarged by the distant view 
of history, of nature, of the arts, and of society. The version 
of the Scriptures into their native tongue, which had facilitated 
their conversion, must excite, among their clergy, some 
curiosity to read the original text, , to understand the sacred 
Liturgy of the Church, and to examine, in the writings of the 
Fathers, the chain of ecclesiastical tradition. These spiritual 
gifts were preserved in the Greek and Latin languages, which 
concealed the inestimable monuments of ancient learning. The 
immortal productions of Virgil, Cicero and Livy, which were 
accessible to the Christian barbarians, maintained a silent 
intercourse between the reign of Augustus, and the times of 
Clovis and Charlemagne. 

tf£ The emulation of mankind was encouraged by the remem- 
brance of a more perfect state ; and the flame of science was 
secretly kept alive, to warm and enlighten the mature age of 
the western world. In the most corrupt state of Christianity, 
the barbarians might learn justice from the law, and mercy 
from the gospel : and if the knowledge of their duty was insuf- 
ficient to guide their actions, or to regulate their passions ; 
they were sometimes restrained by conscience, and frequently 
punished by remorse. But the direct authority of religion was 
less effectual than the holy communion which united them with 
their Christian brethren in spiritual friendship. The influence 
of these sentiments contributed to secure their fidelity in the 
service, or the alliance of the Romans, to alleviate the horrors 
of war, to moderate the insolence of conquest, and to preserve 
in the downfall of the empire, a permanent respect for the 
name and institutions of Rome. In the days of Paganism, the 
priests of Gaul and Germany reigned over the people, and 
controuled. the jurisdiction of the magistrates ; and the zealous 
Proselytes transferred an equalj or more ample, measure of 



NOTES. 305 

devout obedience, to the pontiffs of the Christian faith. The 
sacred character of the bishops was supported by their 
temporal possessions; they obtained an honourable seat in the 
legislative assemblies of soldiers and freemen ; and it was their 
interest, as well as their duty, to mollify, by peaceful counsels, 
the fierce spirit of the barbarians. The perpetual correspondence 
of the Latin clergy, the frequent pilgrimages to Rome and 
Jerusalem, and the growing authority of the popes, cemented 
the union of the Christian republic ; and gradually produced 
the similar manners and common jurisprudence, which have 
distinguished, from the rest of mankind, the independent, and 
even hostile nations of modern Europe." f Decline and Fall, 
Ch. xxxviii.) 

Thus it is that the greatest blessings come upon mankind 
incidentally and unexpectedly. From the zeal of modern 
missionaries to Calvinize the South-Sea Islanders, much spiritual 
good is not perhaps to be expected, but together with the 
Assembly's Catechism, they have carried something much 
better to that degraded race. Who would have conjectured, 
twenty years ago, that now a printing-press would be at 
constant work in Otaheite? The world owes much to the men 
who have done this, though it was not the primary object of 
those zealous and enduring efforts which, whatever be their 
opinions, are truly Christian, and deserving of the highest 
commendation. 

NOTE (x)— Page 254. 

On the probable dissolution of whatever institutions may 
obstruct the spread of Christianity, and the improvement of 
mankind, see Hartley on Man, Part ii. Cb. iv. Sect. 2. " Of 
the expectation of Bodies Politic, the Jews in particular, 
and the World in general, during the present state of the 
Earth." 

No evils seem so deeply or generally to have impressed the 

x 



306 



NOTES. 



minds of political speculators, as those caused by the inequal- 
ities of private property. Its equalization or destruction is the 
basis of most of the imaginary republics which have been 
presented to the world by ingenious men, from Plato to Sir 
Thomas More, from More to Harrington, and from Harrington 
to Wallace. Swift, (Gulliver, Part 4 Ch. 6,) Mably (de la 
Legislation) and Godwin, with his disciples or coadjutors have 
attacked it with powerful reasoning. Paley (in his celebrated 
illustration of the pigeons) has made the objection more 
striking than the reply — and Price (Four Dissertations, on 
Providence, &c. p. 137, Note) was inclined to place its 
extinction amongst the future improvements which he so 
ardently anticipated. What is more extraordinary, we find the 
same notions in real legislation. The equal division of the 
Spartan possessions, by Lycurgus, the establishment of common 
tables, and prohibition of the precious metals, were in effect 
the annihilation of private property, and the scheme was as 
successful and enduring as most human institutions in similar 
circumstances. It appears to have been the desire of Solon to 
impose a similar government on Athens, but he found it 
impracticable. In the Mosaic code, the general restitution at 
the year of Jubilee, forbade the accumulation of landed property, 
while the acquisition of any other was rendered difficult by the 
suppression of usury, that is, of interest. The primitive 
Christians set out with having all things in common. 

This coincidence of philosophers and practical men, Heathens 
and Christians, monarchists and republicans, divines and 
infidels, ancients and moderns, on such a subject is surprising. 
However it be accounted for, thus far we may safely go, that 
great riches and extreme poverty are pernicious and depraving 
to those who possess the one, or endure the other, and their 
existence has a very injurious influence upon the intermediate 
classes of society. To the spread of Christian feeling- and 
political philosophy, we must look for the disposition and 
wisdom to mitigate this evil, or to do more than mitigate, if 
more be indeed practicable. 



NOTES. 



307 



NOTE (y)— Page 256. 



Wallace in his Speculations on a perfect Government, 
(Various Prospects of Mankind, Nature and Providence,) looks 
at both sides of the question ; Godwin has taken from him the 
pro, and Malthus the con; the one so adorning his borrowed 
argument with his own intellectual treasures, and the other 
wrapping up his in such a mass of statistical reports, that the 
original author might at first feel as much difficulty in recog- 
nizing his own ideas, as Bloomfield did, when one of his 
Suffolk ballads was turned into Latin. But although Malthus's 
confutation of Godwin, is only a repetition of Wallace's 
confutation of himself, there are differences between these 
writers of some importance. According to Wallace, the 
checks to population are distresses produced by " wrong 
notions, a bad taste, and vicious habits, strengthened by the 
defects of education and government." According to Malthus, 
the immediate checks are vice, misery and moral restraint, and 
the real and ultimate check, a deficiency of the means of 
subsistence, which, he contends, can never keep pace with the 
natural rate of increase of the human species. Wallace never 
thought of a deficiency of subsistence while there were animals 
to be slain, fish to be caught, and lands to be cultivated. It 
will be observed that his ultimate checks are Malthus's imme- 
diate checks, with one remarkable exception ; « the defects of 
government." To this cause Godwin refers (very unjustly) 
almost all the vices and misery that prevail in civil society: 
and Malthus replies, f* that though human institutions appear 
to be, and indeed often are, the obvious and obtrusive causes 
of much mischief to society, they are in reality light and 
superficial, in comparison with those deeper-seated causes of 



308 



NOTES. 



«vii which result from the laws of nature, and the passions of 
mankind." This is a strange exhibition — the infidel denouncing 
human errors, and the clergyman transferring the charge to 
Divine Providence I 

Malthus asserts, that " the great art of Dr. Mandeville con- 
sisted in misnomers." His own art, or error, may perhaps be 
found in the same quarter* For instance, by the phrase " means 
of subsistence," in the Essay on Population, we are not to 
understand the produce which the earth, or any particular 
portion of it, is capable of yielding to the labour of its inha- 
bitants. He repeatedly allows, that almost every country in 
the world is able to support a much larger population than it 
does at present. Nay, we are not to understand even the actual 
produce ; for " by an increase in the means of subsistence is 
here (in the statement of his theory) meant such an increase as 
will enable the mass of the society to command more food. An 
increase might certainly take place, which in the actual state 
of a particular society would not be distributed to the lower 
classes." (Vol. I. p. 34, Ed. 5.) What he does mean, may 
be illustrated thus: suppose two sailors, cast away upon an 
uninhabited island, where they find fruits amply sufficient to 
support both, but one being stronger than the other, takes pos- 
session of the whole, makes a slave of his comrade, compels 
him to toil, and denies him a share of the wholesome food of 
which abundance is attainable; the latter is reduced to feed 
upon noxious substances, becomes diseased, is starved, dies. — 
This, Malthus calls keeping population down to the level of 
subsistence, or limiting it by a deficiency of the means of sub- 
sistence. Is not this a misnomer ? It was the bad government 
of Tom the strong sailor, that destroyed Harry the weak one, 
while the means of subsistence hung unplucked upon the tree. 
Or another supposition may be made, that both of them were 
too idle to climb the tree for wholesome food, or too ignorant 
v to estimate its superiority; and therefore prematurely depo- 
pulated our island by contenting themselves with tfye limited 



NOTES. 



309 



and unwholesome supply which was nearer at hand. To this 
very different case, Malthus applies the same terms, and 
with as much impropriety. In his tour of misery round the 
world, cases analogous to these, even according to his own 
statements, are continually occurring. As an example of the 
first supposition, take Egypt or Turkey, where the rapacity, 
oppression and bad policy of the government, starve a popu- 
lation whose numbers, under British institutions, might be at 
least quadrupled, and every individual four times as well sup- 
plied. For the second, take the American Indians. A dozen 
hunters cannot exist upon a tract of country which would well 
support a hundred shepherds, or a thousand agriculturalists. 
(Book i. Ch. iv. x.) It seems absurd to say that population is 
kept down, in these instances, by the laws of nature refusing 
the means of subsistence ; the means ore there; and their bein^ 
called forth is only prevented by the despotism of the rulers, or 
the idleness and ignorance of the inhabitants. These are the 
real evils; and they are curable, by judicious reformation on 
the one hand, and the diffusion of knowledge, the parent of 
improved manners and habits, on the other. 

Montesquieu truly observes, " Les pais ne sont pas cultives 
en raison de leur fertilite, mais en raison de leur liberie." Had 
America remained the dependent of England, those immense 
resources would not have been broken up, which now yield 
plenty and wealth to the outcasts of Europe. The French Re- 
volution, whatever its evils, has increased at once the numbers,, 
respectability and enjoyments of the peasantry. 

Scotland is a demonstration of the power of instruction to 
produce similar effects. Its population has increased largely 
during the last century, but that the means of subsistence (in 
Malthus's sense of the phrase) and the means of enjoyment 
have increased still more, is evident from the following authentic 
statements. The first is from Fletcher's Second Discourse on 
the Affairs of Scotland, and refers to the year 1698. 

" There are at this day in Scotland (besides a great many 
poor families very meanly provided for by the church-boxes, with 



310 



NOTES, 



others, who, by living upon bad food, fall into various diseases) 
two hundred thousand people begging from door to door. 
These are not only no way advantageous, but a very grievous 
burden to so poor a country. And though the number of them 
be perhaps double to what it was formerly, by reason of this 
present great distress, yet in all times there have been about 
one hundred thousand of those vagabonds, who have lived 
without any regard or subjection either to the laws of the land, 
or even those of God and nature ; fathers incestuously accom- 
panying with their own daughters, the son with the mother, 
and the brother with the sister. No magistrate could ever dis- 
cover, or be informed, which way one in a hundred of these 
wretches di^H t or that ever they were baptized. Many murders 
have been discovered among them j and they are not only a 
most unspeakable oppression to poor tenants, (who, if they 
give not bread* or some kind of provision, to perhaps forty 
such villains in one day, are sure to be insulted by them,) but 
they rob many poor people who live in houses distant from any 
neighbourhood. In years of plenty, many thousands of them 
meet together in the mountains, where they feast and riot for 
many days ; and at country weddings, markets, burials, and 
other the like public occasions, they are to be seen, both men 
and women, perpetually drunk, cursing, blaspheming, and 
fighting together." 

The other is from a speech in the House of Commons, of 
Hope, lord Advocate of Scotland, in 1803. ** He ascribed to 
the establishment of those schools, all that intelligence which 
was so observable in that part of the United Kingdom, and 
which so much attracted the attention of strangers who visited 
it. To it, also, was to be ascribed the good morals, the social 
art ae loyalty, the paucity of crimes, the proper attendance 
on divine worship, and the increasing wealth of that part of 
the country. The paucity of crimes was so remarkable, that 
there were more convicts transported in one Quarter Sessions 
from Manchester, than from all Scotland in the course of the 
year. Executions in Scotland, on an average, do not amount 



NOTES. 



311 



to more than six in the year." See also, for the effect of know- 
ledge on the lower classes, an article (ascribed to Dr. Chalmers) 
on the Causes and Cure of Pauperism, in the Edinburgh Re- 
Tie w. No. 55. 

He;e, then, are two methods, established by facts, in which 
what are called the evils of a redundant population are, to a 
great degree, dispelled, and yet the absolute amount of people 
is much increased. Let them, then, be called plainly what 
they are, the evils of bad government, or of ignorance, for 
which rulers are partly responsible, as tbey can do much for 
instructing the community, and not be attributed to laws of 
nature. This misnomer has made the Essay on Population so 

favourite a book with those who profit by the worst part of 

things as they are, and who never fail to throw it in the faces 
of all who plead for improvement. 

The great difference between Wallace and Malthus is, as to 
the period at which the " pressure of population upon the 
limits of subsistence" interposes a bar to human improve- 
ment, which the former postpones till the earth shall be fully 
peopled, and the latter contends has long since arrived in every 
country. 

But mankind have improved, and are making great advances 
notwithstanding the operations of this evil principle. 

Yet, if it be true that the tendency of population is to 
increase in a geometrical ratio, and food can only be increased 
in an arithmetical ratio, we have a law of nature more fruitful 
in miseries than the worst human institutions, or the grossest 
ignorance, and presenting a difficulty which can never be sur- 
mounted. 

Let the first assumption (though never true in fact J be 
granted. The latter is denied. Food has no tendency to in- 
crease but what is given to it by the will and power of man, 
which may be in any assignable ratio whatever, that the limits 
of the earth will allow. It has been estimated that " the 
natural fertility of the soil is not equal to the one-thirtieth part 



312 



NOTES. 



of the artificial fertility which may be created by the skili 
and labour of man." (Gray on the Happiness of States.) 
In the spontaneous produce there is no progression whatever. 
The artificial increase may be brought to its maximum, in a 
very few years. If the amount of population be multiplied by 
2 in 25 years, food, instead of being only doubled to keep pace 
with it, may be multiplied by 4, or 10, or 30. It would not, 
because nobody would cultivate the ground to raise provision 
for which there were no consumers. The capability of such an 
increase exists, nevertheless. But Mr. Malthus would ask, is 
it always the interest of cultivators to call forth this capability ? 
Perhaps not, sometimes, though it will be generally. But, 

if not, the blarao attaches somewhere «lee than to the laws 

of nature, which is what he diligently keeps out of sight. 

A reference to the able work of Dr. Purves, (Gray versus 
Malthus,) from which I will make one short quotation, will 
supersede enlargement on this subject. 

" His (Malthus's) own surveys, excepting those of regions 
inhabited by men who are not in the state of cultivators, are in 
fact, all decidedly against his theory. Is there a country 
peopled by men who are in that state, in which there is not 
still a great abundance of the means of additional subsistence 
in store ? Why then, in the course of so many ages, has not 
population risen fully to those meaus of subsistence, or till it 
exhausted them ? A deficiency of these means, of which there 
is a confessed superabundance every where, cannot surely be 
the cause. 

" The result of the survey of the earth is this: Throughout 
all her regions, for none of any extent can be excepted, after 
the lapse, nut of hundreds but of thousands of years, there is 
not found one in which population has at all approached the 
limits of the subsistence which it is capable of producing. 
How then can it be possible, that it is a general deficiency of 
subsistence which has checked the progress of population? 
The argument is brief, but it is perfectly decisive." 



NOTES. 



313 



Here, then, we may quit Mr. Malthus. The difficulty started 
by Wallace still remains. A happy world would tend to become 
a full world. Wisdom and virtue, however, might long avert 
the evil : if they cannot enable man to avoid it, why then, at 
last, come it must, — and so must the end of the world. 

NOTE (z)— Page 258. 

So much of the argument for the abolition of war, and im- 
provement of mankind, rests upon the authority of divine 
revelation, that it is not needful, except as matter of specu- 
lation, to attempt to say how those great results will be brought 
about. Probably most theorists have attached a great deal too 
much importance to improvements in governments, and too 
little to the spread of knowledge, while Christianity, the most 
powerful agent, has been generally overlooked. Dr. Purves is 
an exception ; and in concluding with the following admirable 
passage, in which he connects population, as a principle of 
improvement, with Christianity, I have only to wish that the 
" grand catholic doctrines" were already held so uncorruptedly 
in the countries which he calls Christian, as to be attended with 
their genuine consequences. 

<$ For several centuries, population has certainly accelerated 
the rate of its increase throughout Europe and that new-peopled 
division, America; but perhaps it may be conjectured on good 
grounds, that its progress has been slow throughout Africa, and 
that old and thick-peopled division, Asia, if indeed, upon the 
whole, it has not been stationary in these portions of the globe. 
The increase in the two former has evidently been much more 
rapid since the memorable sera of the Reformation, and parti- 
cularly during the last century. That great event in the history 
of the human race in Europe, which, it is probable, will ulti- 
mately affect the destiny of the whole race, was partly itself 
produced by the civilization necessarily arising out of the 

y N 



314 



NOTES. 



increase of population. The unusual stimulus created by the 
attainment of mental freedom, or the right of private judg- 
ment, which has produced so wonderful a change among the 
Protestant nations of Europe, and even through their example, 
among the Romish, by making men depend more on themselves 
and their own exertions, has contributed materially towards the 
rapidity of the increase. And should the whole world ulti- 
mately become Christian, this change, with its necessary con- 
sequences in favour of liberty and virtue, would certainly also 
operate with wonderful power in favour of population. 

" Nor is this event so improbable as some seem to imagine. 
Nearly all Europe and America are already Christian. Part of 
Egypt and Abyssinia professes a nominal Christianity, such as 
it is; and the British establishments in Africa, particularly at 
the Cape of Good Hope, will in time Christianize a considerable 
portion of that ill-peopled division of the globe. Australasia 
will be all Christian. The immense portion of Asia held by 
Russia, though as yet so thinly peopled, will be Christian also ; 
and should certain not improbable events take place in Turkey, 
Christianity, under the auspices of Britain, and aided by British 
civilization, will find it a less difficult task to extend her bene- 
volent sway among the unreasoning bigots of the East, in whose 
minds mystic fancy and savage prejudices usurp too generally 
the place of sober sense and manly feeling. 

" Christianity is fitted to be the religion of the world ; and of 
the world in the highest state of civilization. With the peculiar 
tenets of her sects 1 do not intermeddle. I leave these sects to 
adjust their peculiar creeds, each for itself, as well as they can. 
I speak of the doctrines held in common by all her sects : the 
grand catholic doctrines of men being all the sons of one God, 
all brethren, and all accountable to their Divine Father. Such 
a religion is suited for being the religion equally of the philo- 
sopher and of the peasant ; — the religion of mankind. 

" It is alike favourable to the progress of reason and of liberty. 
The Christian spirit and Christian morality are calculated to 



NOTES, 



315 



make men what they should be. Even the statistician, who 
may view Christianity merely as a system, tending powerfully 
to promote the happiness of mankind, without any reference to 
authority, will ardently wish to see it universally adopted." — 
[Gray versus Malthas, pp. 157 — 130.) 



FINIS. 



Published by the same Author, 



1. The Comparative Tendency of Unitarianism and Calvinism 
to promote Love to God and Love to Man : a Sermon, preached 
at Brighthelmstone, June 30, 1813, before the Southern Uni- 
tarian Society. Second Edition. Is. 

2. Letters to the Rev. J. P. Smith, D.D. on the Sacrifice of 
Christ. 2s. 6d. 

3. A Sermon on Free Inquiry in Matters of Religion. Is. 

4. A Reply to Popular Objections against Unitarianism : a 
Sermon preached at Bristol, June 21, 1815, before the Western 
Unitarian Society. Second Edition. Is. 

5. A Sermon delivered at the Unitarian Chapel, Chichester, 
April 21, 1816, on Occasion of the Death of Thomas P. Powell, 
M. D. 2s. 

6. The Spread of Unitarianism a Blessing to Society : a 
Sermon preached May 28, 1817, before the Friends and Sup- 
porters of the Unitarian Fund. Is. 

7. The Voice of Revelation: a Sermon preached before the 
Unitarian Society, at Essex Street Chapel, April 16, 1818, 
also before the Eastern Unitarian Society, at Palgrave, July 2, 
1818. Is. 



G. Small/kid, Printer, Hackney. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2006 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 
1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



